RWBY RE: Volume 6
by fall-R3aper
Summary: My rewrite for Volume 6 of RWBY(You'll probably wanna read Volumes 1-5 for this one). Songs are directly referenced. Not too many big changes take place till the second half of the Volume.
1. Chapter 1: All abord the Argus Limited

Speeding through the Tundra of upper Anima, an armored train was being assaulted by a horde of Manticores. As the turrets on the top of this train along with a huntsmen, Qrow and Team RWBY fired on them taking a couple out.

Ruby blocked a claw from a Manticore, not noticing another one attacking her from behind that would instead get stabbed by Myrtenaster, as Weiss was speeding by. "Thank me later!" Weiss remarked before Ruby turned her attention back to the Manticore in front of her, slashing at it's face.

Team JNR and Oscar stepped out through the roof in the midst of this carnage.

"Grimm?! Why are they so intent on following us?!" Jaune asked as Nora shot down a Manticore that was flying toward Oscar as he climbed out, notably with the relic clipped to his belt.

"I don't know but we've gotta protect the train!" Ren insisted, holding up both of his Stormflower guns and moving forward.

Ruby fired on the Manticores flying at her when a Sphinx jumped down and knocked her right back into her sister. "Ruby!" Yang glared at the Sphinx as it charged up something in it's throat before spitting out a fire ball.

It would only hit a stone clone of Blake However as she jumped in and pulled Ruby and Yang away from it's attack. "I got your back." Blake smiled a little, Yang scoffed and turned away again as another Manticore descended upon the train, only to be hit in the chest by an icicle as it landed, causing it to stumble slightly, but not die. A single shot from Harbinger however would just as quickly put the beast down as Qrow slung his scythe over his shoulder smirking confidently, not realizing the Sphinx charging up another fire bolt.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby called out as he then turned around when suddenly the sphinx stopped and jumped, pulling itself back along with the other Manticores under it's command.

"Where's it going?" Weiss asked.

"It's obviously scared of us!" Nora laughed, resting her hammer on her shoulder.

"Uh guys?!" Oscar called out now from near the front of the train. "THERE'S A TUNNEL!"

Everyone immediately made way for the inside of the train, Weiss however lost her footing while looking for a way inside and tripped. Ruby caught her hand and smirked. "Thank me later!" she grinned and with a use of her semblance sped the two in between two train cars.

Oscar and the huntsmen they were with quickly made their way inside, but not before the huntsman's arm got caught on the tunnel wall...

* * *

"I can't believe he abandoned us... That he would turn his back on us like that." the voice of an upset White Fang member expressed.

The sound of a door opening permeated the halls of the throne room of the White Fang Chapter in Menagerie.

"Step away from my throne... You have new orders to follow." Adam's voice commanded.

"Us?! You're gonna act like we didn't try and warn you things were going south before your little attack on Haven?! You abandoned a lot of our people there!" another more angry White Fang soldier argued.

"I said, step away, from my throne." Adam commanded, now sounding angrier.

"We're through taking orders from you, Taurus. You're unhinged! The moment you got any amount of sass from that Belladonna girl and she stood her ground, you folded like a coward. Not to mention your face... It's no wonder you'd hide it from us, weakling! As far as we're concerned, you're not a real leader, you're just-"

before the White Fang soldier could argue more, the sound of a gunshot rippled in the room.

"What?! You're betraying your own kind!" the other soldier argued as the sounds of sword slashes and more gunfire echoed through the walls of the Throne room that was now seen to be strewn with bodies all around the floor while Adam sat on his throne.

"The Belladonna girl..." Adam grit his teeth as his blue eye narrowed in anger. "Blake..."

The room went dark as Adam stood up with his hair glowing and he sliced the throne clean in half while letting out a yell in anger.

Turning towards the exit to the throne room Adam ripped the hood off of a killed soldier and put it on before leaving, the door slamming shut behind him.

* * *

On the screen of a monitor in a Train station was a special news report, where a reporter was interviewing with Ghira Belladonna who seemed to be heading up an operation to take out any strongholds of The White Fang that remained around Mistral. "Yes, we've been working closely with the Mistral Police to ensure that all the White Fang strongholds around the city and Kingdom has a whole have been shut down as I along with my many brothers and sisters of our new brotherhood start to redirect their misguided behavior towards the betterment of Remnant as a whole." Ghira explained.

"Ever since the attack on Haven, and the heroic sacrifice of Leonardo Lionheart in saving his students we've been trying our hardest to help keep things stable around Mistral, helping out with perimeter defenses against Grimm and-"

The reporter then interjected. "What are your thoughts on the fact that the White Fang's former High Leader, Adam Taurus still remains at large?"

"I believe we'll find him once we've rooted out every stronghold, that man won't go down without a fight and we're expecting severe resistance if he does-" the TV signal suddenly grew into static before anymore of Ghira's speech could be heard.

"Damn signal." a technician with a remote let out an annoyed sigh.

Qrow let out a sigh as he finished mailing a letter out that was clearly addressed to Ironwood. "Hopefully the courier's able to make the trip." he then turned to his side to see a blur of rose petals and Ruby now standing right next to him. "Hey C'mon Uncle Qrow! The train's gonna be leaving soon!"

"Alright, alright kiddo." Qrow chuckled a little as Ruby sped ahead of him, again using her semblance and stopping right in front of where, Yang, Weiss, JNR and Oscar were all sitting.

"Hey Yang! Lookie!" Ruby held out a gift bag.

"What'd you get me?!" Yang seemed eager.

"Why don't you find out!" Ruby smirked and handed the bag too her and looked into it.

"Thanks sis! I'm definitely gonna wear those when we get into Atlas." she chuckled a little.

Nora was bouncing with joy. "I can't believe we're going to Argus! That beautiful coastline!" she hummed happily. "Oooh do you think it's too early for beach season?!"

"Unfortunately I think so." Ren shook his head and Nora pouted in disappointment. "But we'll at least be almost to Atlas."

Weiss crossed her arms and looked away. "I'm glad you guys are all excited, but I was really put through the wringer when I left Atlas."

A hand was placed on her shoulder as Ruby smiled. "Don't worry Weiss, Team RWBY will be with you every step of the way, so no cold military lady, or your father can keep us apart!"

"No one's gotta be worried!" interjected another voice as everyone turned over towards them.

"Not with your very own huntsmen around!~" a second voice stated as the team saw two huntsmen with them, one of them had a spiked club and the other had some kind of rifle.

"Dee." the man with the bat proclaimed.

"Dudley." the rifle toting man pat his chest.

"And you guys might be?" Weiss seemed clearly unimpressed.

"Why we're the Argus Limited's own Huntsmen!" Dee explained. "We'll be keeping everyone safe on this ride."

Dudley then smirked specifically at Weiss. "But of course, if you give us a generous tip... We'll give your car some "extra" protection."

"Well, I do have a tip for ya bozos." Qrow interjected as the turned to face him. "Focus on your job."

Qrow looked to his nieces but then back to Dee and Dudley. "Honestly, I'm disappointed that you two are all Mistral really has to offer in terms of protection for us... They're really scraping the bottom of the barrel."

Ruby and Yang started making faces, clearly mocking Dee and Dudley as Qrow's back was turned to them. "Do you know who you're talking to?!" Dee seemed annoyed. "We're-"

"Licensed huntsmen. Yes." Qrow held up his own license which abruptly shut the two up. "You morons left the staff entrance to the caboose wide open by the way, anyone could just sneak their way in."

The two immediately ran over to handle that.

"I certainly hope those weren't my students." Ozpin remarked mentally at Oscar.

"Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they were more of Leo's students." Oscar shook his head. "It's a good thing we're the ones in charge of saving the world and not them."

"Couldn't have said it better." Jaune agreed.

"Oh totally." Yang chuckled.

"We'd be doomed." Ruby joked.

"So everyone's ready to go, right?" Qrow asked. "Bike's on board?"

"Yep." Yang confirmed.

"We're just waiting on Blake. Who's taking long as per usual." Weiss mused, looking across the train station.

* * *

On the other end of the station Ilia and Blake were leaning by a balcony overlooking the Argus Limited. Ilia was now wearing a more casual looking outfit "So, I guess this is it, huh?" Ilia remarked.

"Yeah." Blake nodded. "It's been a long time coming but I need to start making amends with my teammates." she stared off towards them as they all seemed to be talking among each other now.

"Go figure, that you're the one who gets to go on the quest to save the world." Ilia shook her head. "I'd accompany you, but I still have a lot to atone for with what I did in the White Fang, and I feel like I'd be more help here with your father's new movement, than I'd be with you guys."

"Hey, it takes a lot of strength to admit something like that. It took a ton of strength to admit you were wrong before as well."

A chuckle escaped Ilia's mouth. "I mean you're definitely the right person to tell me about strength." she smiled to Blake.

Blake, now glancing back towards the platform where her teammates seemed to be looking for her let out a sigh. "Thank you, Blake. For everything you did for me. Thanks for not giving up."

"I'd never give up on a real friend." she let out a sigh, looking in Yang's direction. "i wish the same could be said the other way around."

"Give it time, I'm sure she'll come around. It's just like Sun said!" Ilia assured as Blake started to turn away from her to go. "One more thing, Blake!"

Blake turned towards her and Ilia kissed her cheek with a smile before giving her a hug. "Be safe."

"You too." Blake hugged her back and finally started down the stairs, only to be approached by Sun.

"Hey, Blake!" Sun wrapped his arm around her shoulder with a chuckle.

"Oh, hey Sun!" Blake greeted back, moving his hand off her shoulder. "So, are you gonna sneak your way onto this train?" she joked.

"Oh?! Me? Nah, you need the time with your teammates. Besides... I'm kind of the worst team leader ever." Sun remarked.

"Understatement of the Century." Neptune, who was with him remarked.

"So we'll be going to Shade to make up for lost time." he explained.

"So... Is that Ilia over there?" Neptune asked.

"Yeah." Sun stated as Neptune slicked his hair back and approached.

"Wrong tree." Blake stated, shaking her head.

"He'll figure it out." Sun shrugged his shoulders.

"I'll miss you, Sun." she admitted, her cat ears flattening against her head.

The monkey faunus just chuckled. "Hey, now I go where my friends need me to be, and honestly my teammates need me a little more now, so I'll be focusing more on them."

Blake took a deep breath. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to thank you enough, Sun. I mean things aren't perfect with my team and me yet-"

"But they'll improve with time." Sun assured. "I have a feeling you haven't seen the last of me, Blake." he folded his arms behind his head.

"I better not have seen the last of you." Blake remarked before leaning up and kissing his cheek and waving him off before going back towards her team.

Neptune, walking back over in slight defeat let out a sigh. "You're kind of just letting her go, aren't you?"

Crossing his arms, Sun shrugged. "It was never about that Neptune. She's my friend, and I help my friends out. C'mon, I'll start making it up to you guys by getting you all some lunch."

"You're gonna need a lot more than one lunch to make it up to us." Neptune stated as he followed Sun.

"Well you're also gonna need to get ready for the wastelands too, and let me tell you, you guys are currently not in the best shape for that." Sun laughed as Neptune groaned a bit now.

* * *

The Argus Limited was now speeding through the Snowy Tundra of Northern Anima. In one of the cars was a room with 2 sets of bunk beds. On one side sat Ruby and Weiss, while Yang and Blake were on the other.

The ride had been mostly quiet, that was till Ruby decided to break the silence.

"Alright team! Time for some team exercises!" Ruby declared. "We'll play some video games, then a board game and then watch a movie with snacks!"

"Sounds fun enough to me." Weiss remarked.

"I'll kick your butt in all the games!" Yang declared. "Let me get my scroll first." she leaped off of her bed and started towards the closet, but Blake beat her to it and reached up for her bag.

"H-Here let me help you with that!" Blake insisted.

"Blake, you really don't have to do that." Yang sighed as she took her bag from Blake's hand and Blake looked away, her ears folding down a bit slightly.

"I-I don't know what you mean." Blake looked towards Ruby and Weiss, hoping for their help.

"Look, I get that you really want to start making things up to us all... Things'll feel normal soon, I hope. What's important is that we're back together as a team." Yang turned away, with her scroll out now.

Ruby and Weiss saw this and frowned a little, Blake looked back to them in slight disappointment as she took her scroll out to at least participate in the game.

Before they could properly start Qrow entered the room, martini in hand and seeing them all on their scrolls. "Hey, you kids playing a game? I'd be down for a match or two." he chuckled before the train suddenly jolted.

"What was that?!" Blake asked as the passengers screamed.

"Probably what you're thinking it was." Weiss stood herself up.

"Just my luck." Blake lamented.

"Not your's..." Qrow peered out the window. "Grab your weapons, now!"

* * *

On the top of the train, Dee and Dudley were engaging the attacking Manticores with Dudley getting a couple of hits in on one, but not taking it out.

Team RWBY Along with Qrow stepped outside, weapons drawn out now.

The Sphinx landed atop the train and roared viciously.

With his weapon now charged with electric dust, Dee charged at it, hitting it's leg, but it did not budge.

He took a panicked step back now as the Sphinx glared down at him and swatted him aside with an arm, sending him flying off the train, screaming.

"DEE!" Dudley grit his teeth and started shooting at the Sphinx now.

"What's the plan, Ruby?!" Blake asked.

"We're going to save this train." Ruby affirmed.

The team started to engage the Grimm just as Oscar and JNR stepped outside through an opening in the roof...

* * *

Dudley screamed as he was now holding his bent out of shape arm.

"You need to shut off the turrets." Qrow stated.

"W-Why should I do that?"

"Because the turrets are drawing the grimm towards the passengers aboard the train, rather than just us on top." he reasoned.

"As if i'd take advice from some-" he stopped and took a deep breath as Jaune was using his aura to heal his arm slightly.

"Look, we know what we're doing." Ruby assured. "Just trust us, please. We only want to help."

Fine..." Dudley pressed the buttons on his scroll and the turrets shut off. "The armor stays up though."

"Of course." Ruby nodded.

"We still need a plan, because once we're out of this tunnel those Grimm are gonna be on us again." Blake shook her head.

"What if Ren used his semblance to mask all the people on the train?" Nora suggested.

"i don't know if I could manage that many people at once." Ren shook his head.

"What if Jaune amplified you?" Weiss brought up.

"That could work." Ren affirmed.

"That sounds like a fine idea." Qrow nodded in agreement.

"Just one problem." Ozpin pointed out, gesturing to the relic. "The Grimm are also attracted to this."

"What is that?" Dudley asked.

"None of your business." Qrow interjected.

"Why didn't you tell us that?" Yang seemed annoyed now.

"I-" before Ozpin could defend himself Ruby interjected.

"That's not important at this moment. What's important right now is saving the people on this train. The longer we're here with the relic, we're putting everyone in danger."

"What are you suggesting, Ruby?" Jaune asked with concern in his tone.

"I'm suggesting you guys move everyone to the front of the train, and we'll separate the back and deal with all the Grimm." Ruby stated. "You guys just have to make sure the train gets to Argus."

Jaune grit his teeth and sighed. "As much as I don't like it, it's probably our only option. We'll do it, so long as you guys agree to meet with us once you get to Argus."

"Of course." Ruby smiled. "It's a promise." they shook pinkies on it.

With that, Team JNR and Dudley started moving all the passengers to the front of the train as it exited the tunnel, amid the panic, an elderly woman with eye implants snuck her way further back on the train.

Everyone from both teams climbed to the roofs of the train, ready to separate it and deal with any oncoming Grimm as the Sphinx and Manticores were starting to close in again.

Nora held her grenade launcher, ready for anything attacking while Ren knelt down and Jaune looked over to Team RWBY, Oscar and Qrow on the other half of the train.

Blake jumped down, between cars now and cut the links between two of the trains. Adam wearing his hood stood on the other train car, looking at her as she drew her weapon at him but blinked and saw he was gone. Chalking it up to her imagination Blake jumped back up to the top of the train.

_Time and Time again it seems,  
We've reached the point where all our dreams  
Are crumbling all around us,  
Every outcome unjust._

Ruby watched as her scroll signal with Team JNR was getting lower, narrowing her eyes back towards the tunnel where the manticores were starting to run out.  
_  
Every step it seems has lead us further from our goals instead,  
Our triumphs haven't mattered,  
We're drifting ever backward_

"Now!" Ruby called out as the Sphinx from above landed on the back end of the train with other manticores following in suit.

_And we're running out of time,  
Nowhere near the finish line!_

With Jaune grabbing his shoulder now, Ren activated his semblance and masked the entire train as it sped forward.

_And it's growing ever clear,  
That a reckoning is near,  
And we'll have to make a choice,  
Is this path right?  
_  
A manticore landed in front of Ruby as she put her scroll away and slashed out at it, while the others started to engage against more Grimm.

_Or is it made of lies?  
We're looking in ourselves,  
And trusting in the light,  
A miracle is all we need,  
But there isn't one in sight!_

Oscar dodged back as a Manticore lunged for him and the relic before he smacked it with the side end of Long Memory, following up with a couple of more swings of it, knocking it around.

A Manticore attempted to ram Yang with it's horns but Yang caught it with both of her hands and spun it around, flipping it on it's back before uppercutting it.

Another Manticore attempted to stab Blake with it's scorpion stinger, but she cut it's tail off, and jumped onto it before it faded, slicing it's body clean in half before separating her weapon into it's dual blade form and dodging around another Manticore's stinger with a shadow clone.

Weiss parried a scorpion stinger and sliced clean at a Manticore's face, cutting one of it's eyes and making it stagger back as she then launched it off the train with a glyph, knocking it into the snowy tundra where it faded into a black mist.

_Each and every passing day,  
Our world's in further disarray  
Confidence descending,  
Where's our happy ending?_

Ruby leaped over a claw swipe and cut a Manticore clean in half from above, before following up by slicing the front legs of one in front of her off. An Airborne manticore attempted to dive at her and she was knocked back, catching herself on her feet quickly.

_On a path,  
But still we strayed,  
Our aspirations quickly fade,  
Desperation's risin'  
On hopeless bleak horizons!_

Ruby glanced over, seeing Qrow fighting the sphinx and Oscar struggling with that first Manticore that wasn't going down no matter how many times he hit it. "Weiss!" Ruby called out before rushing over and, hooking her scythe into a Manticore that Weiss then helped her through with a glyph boosting her into the air. The manticore struck the one that Oscar was scruggling with and Ruby then turned toward Yang and Blake who were fighting other Manticores.

Yang was firing out shots at a manticore that kept dodging around he shots, while Blake slashed through a leg of one in front of her with her bladed sheath.

_Every life is on the line,  
Can't wait here for a sign_

Qrow was knocked back when the Sphinx charged up a fire ball that he tried to deflect but, couldn't as he was knocked further away from the others as it then started to float up.

_And it's like the blood that's shed,  
Every cancer's sure to spread,  
And the time to act is short_

"We need it grounded guys!" Ruby stated as Yang looked to Blake who nodded a bit eagerly.

_We know inside,  
We're born to do what's right_

Yang slid under it's legs, firing a shot out under it, and hitting it, enraging it more as Blake threw Gambol Shroud out and Yang punched it, starting to wrap Gambol Shroud around it's body.  
_  
Desire to preserve life,  
Is powering the light_

With one last punch, Yang slammed Gambol Shroud into the roof of the train and pulled on it's ribbon, forcing the Sphinx to the ground as it roared out.

_We're praying for a miracle,  
But for now we'll stand and fight  
_  
Weiss skated over on her glyphs and with two glyphs formed on it's wings, froze them solid, giving Ruby and Qrow the perfect opening to blast it's wings off, permanently grounding it now as it started to charge up a fire ball that it was going to fire down at the ground below it.

Ruby and Qrow stood on opposite ends of each other, scythes drawn as Blake and Yang were struggling to keep the Sphinx grounded.

The two then sprung forward, spinning rather quickly, boosting their speed with shots fired from their weapons, Ruby spinning clockwise and Qrow spinning counter clockwise before the pair of them sliced the Sphinx clean in half, the beast's top half flying into the air, but not before letting out it's final fireball on the tracks ahead of the train, which caused the train to start shaking as everyone landed, Ruby grounded herself with her scythe, as did Qrow. Weiss used gravity well glyphs on everyone else as the train crashed into the snow.

* * *

As the dust settled in the wreckage everyone was struggling to find their bearings.

"Is everyone okay?" Ruby called out.

"Y-Yeah..." Yang groaned, rubbing her back.

"I've been better." Qrow darkly sighed as he saw Blake stumble to her fee.

"Just fine." Blake assured.

"Still alive!" Declared the voice of an elderly woman as she walked out with her weird skull cane and adjusted her eye implants slightly. "That sure was a close one, eh?" she chuckled.

* * *

**Commentary**: Thus we kick off Volume 6! The last Volume I've written out of this. I have done my best to make Adam's presence more clearly known and felt by Blake. Which, these next couple of chapters don't change too much, although the execution and certain words spoken aren't exactly the same. Things are really going to change up when we get to Argus however.


	2. Chapter 2: Uncovered

Down in the depths of an Underwater lake, laid Cinder Fall who was still partially frozen... She suddenly woke up, gasping for air and gagged on water before, forcing herself up and out of the water, coughing and heaving, glancing up at the where she fell off of, the Vault itself looked like a glowing rock from the height she dropped.

Noticing a crack in the tunnel wall leading to the outside., Cinder raised a fist up and with her eyes glowing tried to break it, but found herself to weak to do so. She tried to make fire in her hands, but only a slight spark of flame emerged.

Finally outside, Cinder saw that she was in the slums of Mistral. She took a step forward, and fell over, holding her back in pain as the burns from where Vernal had shot her were still very visible and exposed.

It was at that moment that a woman passing by, dropped her basket full of food. She immediately rushed over to Cinder. "Excuse me, Ma'am do you need help?" she asked.

Cinder glanced up at her. "Yes..." her eye lit up with a flame but it died down as she dropped to the ground, too exhausted to move. The woman, immediately helped her but stopped when she saw the wanted poster with Cinder's face.

"You're one of the people that attacked Haven." The woman remarked as she glanced over at Cinder.

"You, gonna kill me then?" Cinder asked, darkly laughing.

"No." the woman looked down. "You may rest up at my place and take a change of clothes for the day. Nothing more."

"Why?" Cinder asked as she was pulled into an alley.

"it just feels right to help someone in need, no matter who they might be." The woman stated with a slight smile before she then handed Cinder the part of her robe with her hood in order to disguise her as they made their way further into the town.

* * *

In the dorms of Haven Academy, sat Teams JNR and RWBY. Qrow was leaning on the couch RWBY was sitting at while Ozpin stood, leaning on his cane with the relic clipped to his belt.

"So our objective is to get the relic to Atlas." Ozpin explained. "There, General Ironwood will be able to secure it. Is there any questions?"

A few hands shot up, and Ozpin decided to answer Ruby's question first. "What does the relic do? Like how does it work?"

Ozpin chuckled a little. "I'm glad you asked." he took the relic off of his belt and it grew slightly in size. "The relic of knowledge has the ability to answer any 3 questions you ask it, every 100 years."

"Oooh... We can ask it any question?!" Nora grinned leaning over. "Can we ask for more questions?!"

"I don't believe it works like that." Ozpin shook his head. "There are of course limits to what type of questions can be asked. You cannot ask about what has yet to happen."

"I see..." Weiss crossed her arms.

"Say Professor Ozpin, can you make a simple promise to us?" Yang asked.

"Name your terms." the former headmaster looked towards Yang.

"No more lies, or half-truths. We want you to be open with us about everything. If there's any information pertinent to our mission as we do it, tell us immediately. Don't wait till the right timing, just tell us." Yang crossed her arms.

Ozpin took a deep breath and looked away. "I've told you all you need to know right now."

"But have you told us everything? Like you didn't tell everyone about the power you instilled in my Mother and my Uncle."

"Instilled?" Ruby tilted her head, looking to Qrow.

"I can turn into a bird." Qrow scratched the back of his head.

"Ah yes, that... I did give Qrow and Raven that shape shifting ability to aid in scouting." Ozpin explained.

"You can give magic out?" Nora asked. "Oooh! Give me some!" she exclaimed. "I wanna be able to shoot lightning from my hands!"

"Can't you kind of already do that, Nora?" Jaune deadpanned.

"But not with magic!" Nora pouted.

"I'm afraid my magic is very low, as I used most of what I have to create the four powerful beings you know as the maidens."

"You mean the powers Pyrrha got herself killed over." Jaune glared.

"Yes, those." Ozpin gripped his cane tighter. "I wish there was more I could have done to save Miss Nikos..."

"Save the pity." Jaune scoffed.

"But yes, I... I promise that I won't keep anymore secrets from you lot." Ozpin assured. "We'll set out next week to Argus."

* * *

The snow was starting to get more tense as everyone was regaining their bearings again. "I can't believe this." Yang grit her teeth in annoyance. "First we get attacked by Grimm, then we find out the relic attracts the Grimm, then we get separated from half our party, then we get stranded in the middle of nowhere and now we've just gained a defenseless old lady!" Yang yelled as she pulled Bumblebee out of the snow before falling back into it.

"My name is Maria Calavera and I am NOT defenseless!" Maria glared. "Just a little deaf... And blind without my eyes, that I was on my way to go and get repairs for. Okay, I kind of see your point now."

"Knock it off, Yang." Qrow grunted as he dusted off a crate before sitting on it. "That attitude is just going to bring more Grimm to us."

"But does that even matter though?! Apparently we've been attracting Grimm ever since we left Mistral." Blake crossed her arms.

"And don't even get me started with that! Ozpin, you told us you wouldn't keep things from us anymore!" Yang's eyes turned red while glaring in Oscar's direction.

"Yeah, I think all of us deserve an answer." Oscar stated in annoyance before Ozpin took control.

"I did not lie to you." Ozpin reasoned. "I did however not think that the relic attracting Grimm would be a problem relevant to our situation till what happened."

"What happened to no more lies or half-truths?" Yang scoffed. "If you're just gonna hold stuff from us, don't even bother making a promise."

Ozpin took a deep breath and stepped forward. "Look, I did not have any malicious intent with keeping that information from you. I just feared that sharing that information with you would only increase the negative emotions and anxiety, attracting even more Grimm to our group than the relic would. It seemed like the safer choice to make."

Weiss scoffed. "I'm really tired of other people choosing what's best for me."

"Is that why you chose to lie to everyone about what Lionheart did?" Yang asked.

Gritting his teeth now, Ozpin turned away from the group while pacing forward. "Yes, as a matter of fact. I believe the Kingdom of Mistral deserved better than the truth. Sure Professor Lionheart took missteps in his final years, but his last act was one of bravery, of protecting his students. Surely, you can't say he didn't try to atone for what he did with his life?"

"Missteps? Atone?! He still sent countless huntsmen to their deaths." Yang glared. "Who's gonna answer for those lives?!"

"What Professor Lionheart did, I won't sugarcoat and say it wasn't terrible. It was horrible, Haven is understaffed, Mistral is underprotected... But do those actions really deny any good he may have done in his life?" Professor Ozpin argued. "The man you met isn't the man I met, the man that Salem hadn't yet corrupted with her fearful tactics."

Hand shaking more Yang wasn't about to drop this. "You can trust us! We're in this together! We won't turn our backs on you!"

"YOU THINK LEO, WAS THE FIRST?!" Ozpin yelled back, shocking everyone to silence. "You think they didn't say those same exact words to me? I'm sorry, my own behaviors and secrets are backed by lifetimes of experiences. I'm not saying you will betray me, but I have my reasons for what I say, what I keep from you and..." he stopped for a moment and felt for the relic on his belt. "Where's the relic?"

Approaching from around a train car Ruby, held it up. "It's right here. It got scattered in the crash." she stated.

"Please, hand it over to me." Ozpin held a hand out.

Ruby took a hesitant step back, looking towards him. "So all those times where you told me you had faith in humanity, was that only for everyone else?"

Ozpin took a deep breath and softened his harsher tone. "That's not what I meant to suggest Ruby, it's just that the relic is a very powerful item and I feel like it's my burden to bear."

"But, you said it's useless right now." Ruby looked at it with slight suspicion.

"Yeah? Why would it matter who carries it?" Blake interjected.

"I need you to listen-" Ozpin was starting to raise his voice again when he stopped suddenly, Oscar taking control back from him, now frozen partially.

"You, okay Oz?" Qrow stepped over.

"Hurry... He's... Trying to stop me." Oscar was shaking. "This is my body, dammit!" he yelled back.

"Stop her from what?!" Yang raised her weapons now.

"Stop her from finding out... What he's... Keeping from you." Oscar held his head with one hand before falling to his knees.

Weiss, Blake and Yang all stood between him and Ruby defensively.

"Her name is Jinn. Say her name to summon her." Oscar instructed.

Looking to the relic quizzically, Ruby held it up slightly higher. "Jinn?" she spoke as the relic suddenly floated up and time all around the group stopped.

"What's going on?" Maria asked as she saw time stop before her very eyes as the lamp started emitting a blue smoke before finally a large feminine figure emerged from it, with blue skin, dark blue hair and looking mostly nude save for the chains and gold her body was adorned with. The lower half of her body appeared to be releasing a thin layer of blue smoke that served almost as a dress.

"Wonderful." Jinn declared as she looked down to the group with a smile. "Tell me, young ones... What knowledge do you seek?" she asked, while leaning down with a smile.

* * *

Wearing the woman's robes now, Cinder stepped just outside the door when the woman stopped her. "Hey wait."

"What now?" Cinder glared.

"You should cover that arm up." she pointed to her Grimm arm. "I don't know what exactly that is, but that makes you look awfully suspicious in an already suspicious part of town."

"Fair point. Give me a roll of bandages and consider it done." Cinder took the roll and a small bag of lien that was given to her before she departed.

"Handouts." she scoffed slightly. "Ah well, that woman more than served her use, so she can live for now." Cinder began the process of bandaging up her Grimm arm in the alleyway before stepping out of it, now with a fully bandaged arm.

As she walked further into the city, she saw a screen with a poster that had pictures of her, Emerald, Mercury, Hazel and Adam. It seemed that they were now wanted in Mistral ever since the failed attack on Haven a month ago.

She spots a door with a slight bit of graffiti on it. "This has to be the place..." The graffiti was that of a spider. She stepped inside and looked around to see this place wasn't exactly the most upstanding establishment.

Many gang members with spider tattoos and quite a few of them clad in purple outfits. She looked around and saw the woman in the back, starting to approach her and stopping at her table.

"That's far enough, Ma'am." the woman declared.

Cinder tossed the money onto the table in front of her. "You're Lil' Miss Malachite?" Cinder asked. "You hardly look the part your name would suggest." she scoffed.

"I'm Lil' Miss gonna skin you alive if you ever take that tone with me again." Lil' Miss glared at Cinder angrily now before looking to her money. "What do ya need that you need to give me your life's savings for?"

"It belonged to someone." Cinder sat down across from her before placing her scroll down in front of the woman. "I'm looking for these travelers." she started to cycle through pictures of team RWBY and JNR.

"You came to the right place, sweetie." Lil' Miss chuckled as Cinder turned around immediately when she heard the door harshly slam behind her.

"Jumpy today, now are we? You know, I used to be quite scared of Spiders." she stated. "Wanna know what I did?"

"Learned to crush them all like the pitiful bugs they are?" Cinder asked, clenching her fist in front of her.

"Oh heaven's no! I simply learned to make the spiders my friends." Lil' Miss finished. "They work for me now. Just give us a few days and we'll message ya as soon as we find your travelers."

With that last confirmation, Cinder stood up and exited the establishment. One of Lil' Miss' guards looked towards her. "Ma'am we already know where those travelers are. That guy in the hood asked about them last week."

"I know we know, but we need to get in touch with another client that has interest in her." Lil' Miss put out her smoke.

* * *

Looking down on everyone, Jinn leaned forward. "I am Jinn, a being created by the God of Light to aid humanity in their pursuit of Knowledge. I've been graced with the ability to answer 3 questions every 100 years, and you're in Luck. I'm still able to answer-"

"That's enough!" Ozpin interjected, standing himself up slightly as Oscar was still clearly fighting him for control.

"Two questions, this era." Jinn finished as everyone glared back to Ozpin as he fell to his knees again. "It is a pleasure to see you again, old man." she chuckled a little.

Ozpin held his head. "Ruby... Please... Don't do this."

"Hey." Qrow interjected, wanting to get his two cents in, but the others stepped between him, Ruby and Ozpin. He held his hands up in surrender. "Do whatever you think is right."

"Jinn?" Ruby looked towards her, now knowing what question she had to ask. Ozpin grit his teeth, looking at her. "What is Ozpin hiding from us?"

"**NOOOOOO**!" Ozpin yelled before rushing at Ruby.

"Ruby!" Qrow wanted to interject but before anything else could happen Ruby found herself in a blank white void. "Huh?! G-Guys?! Weiss?! Blake?! Y-Yang!?" she looked around but saw nothing.

"Ruby!" Weiss called out into the void as well, but couldn't see anyone or anything.

"Blake?! Ruby?!" Yang called out.

"Yang?! Anyone?!" Blake shouted before suddenly she heard something as the world around her started to appear.

"Once upon a time, there stood a Lonely tower." Jinn's voice began as Qrow now saw what was appearing around him.

"This lonely tower, sheltered, a Lonely girl."

A beautiful woman, sitting in front of a mirror was adjusting her hair with a brush and turned towards the door where Ruby was standing now, though it was clear she didn't see Ruby.

"Her name was... **_Salem_**."

* * *

**Commentary**: Here we find out what happened to Cinder, and in a slight twist of events, she doesn't immediately go and kill the woman that found her and instead actually gets some help. It just felt like a slightly more interesting route to go for with her. As for the other stuff around Ozpin, it's very much similar. I do unfortunately have my hands tied quite a bit with the next Chapter as that's essentially the lore that Remnant is built around. I didn't wanna change up too much, more on that when we get there.


	3. Chapter 3: The Lost Fable

"Locked into this Lonely tower by her cruel father, Salem lived an isolated life." Jinn's voice explained as the vision was now showing Salem staring out at the window longingly. "She desired but one thing, Freedom."

Salem started to form magical spheres in her hand that spun around as she looked on in boredom. "She lived in an age of plentiful Kingdoms, Kings and magic. All in this time had the power to wield it freely, as the Gods had gifted them this power. Yet even with this power, she remained imprisoned in the tower."

The scenery started to shift again to the outside of the tower where Qrow looked around in confusion.

"That was till when a legendary hero would come to free her from the tower and it's numerous cruel and deadly challenges. This hero's name was Ozma." as Jinn's voice mentioned his name, Ozma appeared before Qrow, who waved a hand in front of his face, expecting some sort of reaction but got none as his hand simply passed through Ozma's face when he stepped forward.

"Unlike other would-be heroes that came before, Ozma was not fueled by desires for the beautiful maiden that resided in the tower. No, instead he would only fight for Righteousnes and justice."

As Ozma entered the tower a large suit of armor animated itself and looked down on him, wielding a sword and shield. It swung out at him and he dodged back from the attack. Weiss as she was watching this scene, raised up her arms in defense, but the strike never hit her as it kicked up the dirt in the room.

Ozma ran up the large sword that was now stuck in the ground and with a single swing of his sword, cleaved the armor's head off before advancing into the next room.

"His pure heart and courageous soul prevailed against the tower's unruly challenges."

Ozma entered Salem's room in the tower, much to her surprise as she ran up to him and hugged him.

"The pair escaped that wretched fortress and found themselves bound together." Jinn's voice stated as the two ran out into the field holding hands and stopping to look at each other.

"Ozma had been willing to give his life for justice and the world many times and yet, he found a woman that he would throw down his own life for. And Salem found freedom, not only with the outside world that she had been kept from, but in the eyes of the man that had saved her from imprisonment."

The two sat down in the field and looked out towards the tower. "So what should we do now?" Salem asked. "Where should we go?"

Ozma just smiled at this. "Wherever you'd like." he offered.

"The Two fell deeply in love, planned adventures all around the world and lived happily ever after..."

Ruby smiled a little at this, but then came to a realization. "This story... It's the story of the girl in the tower."

"At least, that's what should have been." Jinn's voice interjected before Ruby could finish her thought.

"Ozma, the legendary infallible hero of justice... Fell ill of an incurable disease. Where all beasts, traps and blades fell short, a single sickness prevailed."

Salem sat by Ozma's side as he laid unconscious in his bed, before the breath finally escaped his body. "How... How could the gods let something this terrible happen?!"

"It was then that Salem had an idea. The Gods, the Brothers of Light and of Darkness, creation and destruction, she believed that they could make things right."

Blake watched in awe as the simple images she saw of the Gods before her sprang to life as a mountainous summit with stairs, leading up to a large tree that Salem was walking up. "It's..."

"Beautiful." Yang remarked, finishing Blake's sentence as she watched it unfold further.

"The Domain of Light was a very sacred place, It was here the elder brother dwelled in his fountain of life and creation. It was here where Mankind would ultimately fall to ruin..."

Salem fell to her knees, bowing her head down as well. "Please... Please bring him back to me."

The God of Light floated before her, only as an orb of light before he then stood in a humanoid form, silhouetted by a blinding light. "I understand your pain, Salem. But there is a delicate balance that must be maintained between life and death." The God reasoned. "If I were to bring Ozma back, then I'd no doubt be expected to bring back anyone who's died and that would result in there no longer being any value in the concept of life and death."

"So... You won't do it then." Salem looked away.

"To disrupt this cycle that my brother and I created-"

"But that's not fair... THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Salem yelled angrily.

The God stopped before slightly growing himself in size. "Let. Him. Rest." the wind around Salem kicked up leaves that circled around her before she found herself at the base of the stairs again.

"No..." she grit her teeth before storming off as the scene changed yet again through more blue smoke.

"Left with no other options... Salem turned to the other brother. The God of Darkness. None dare enter his domain, as men knew of the monstrosities that emerged from his pools of destruction and death. So you would understand the God of Dark's confusion at the sight of a lone woman kneeling before him."

In front of the pool Yang watched in horror next to Salem as the God of Darkness's body twisted and contorted out of the pool till it emerged in front of Salem as a dark silhouetted figure cloaked in a purple aura.

"Salem understood his confusion well enough to use it to her advantage, she told him of her loss and admitted that she knew only he could answer her dark prayer. She also took careful heed to not mention his elder brother."

"Rise, my child... Let your faith in me be rewarded with what it is that you want." The God of Darkness held his arms out as Salem presented Ozma's staff to him.

With a single hand the God of Darkness returned Ozma to Salem, he landed right next to her and was coughing and gasping for air.

"Ozma!" Salem hugged him tightly.

"Where Am I?! W-What is this?! Salem?!" Ozma was surprised.

"It's alright, everything's going to be fine." Salem assured before suddenly the God of Light appeared. Weiss took a fearful step back as she watched this scene unfold.

"What have you done, brother?" The God of Light glared at his younger brother.

"I have done what I please, Brother. You bask in the power of creation, but they are not your exclusive right." The God of Darkness argued as he stepped forward.

"This abomination isn't creation." The elder brother insisted.

"Don't you lecture me, Brother!" The younger brother spat back, now pacing around his brother as a horde of his Grimm were now surrounding his elder.

"I will do what I must to maintain order."

Before Salem had any time to react, the God of Light destroyed Ozma, shattering him into dust. No, NO! BRING HIM BACK!" she screamed.

"You show such disrespect in MY DOMAIN!?" The God of Darkness brought Ozma back into Salem's arms as she held onto him even more tightly.

"I am simply abiding by the rules we agreed on!" the God of Light reasoned.

"And yet these rules seem to have bias towards you. Why would that be?" The God of Darkness crossed his arms. "It's funny that the day a mortal comes to pray to me before you, that you show up here and disrespect me!"

The God of Darkness transformed into what appeared to be his true form, a giant glowing purple dragon with four legs, two large wings and curved horns on his head as the creatures of Grimm all made their attempt to charge at the brother of Light.

Maria's prosthetic eyes widened in surprise as the God of Light transformed in a blinding flash of silver light that disintegrated all of the surrounding Grimm as he turned into his true form, a serpent like dragon that was glowing with a golden and white aura with straight horns on his head.

"I understand the both of us have our own differences, Brother. But I have not come here to you in order to start a fight that would likely rip this world asunder." The God of Light reasoned. "No... The real individual that upsets this balance is that woman who kneels before you. She lies to you, brother. She came to me before you and asked that which you have given her. She has disrupted the cycle that we together have created."

The God of dark turned and snarled at Salem after thinking for a moment. "Allow me to correct this mistake then."

Before Salem could react, Ozma was ripped from her arms again as the God of Dark fired out a shot of purple energy at him that he pushed Salem away from.. "No, NO!" she screamed.

"You. Monsters. Bastards! GIVE HIM BACK TO ME!" Salem yelled as she threw out fire balls and ice at the God of Darkness before the God of Light suddenly rushed at her and seemingly ate her, everything going white for her.

It took a moment but Salem's vision finally corrected itself, she then fell from an extremely high height into the God of Light's fountain, getting submerged before suddenly being dumped back onto it's surface, gagging and coughing up water.

"When you first came to me, I felt terrible for you, your selfishness and arrogance have led you astray." The God of Light stated, still in his more monstrous form.

"What did you do to me?" Salem asked as she sat herself up.

"I have made you immortal." he explained as Salem's eyes went wide.

"Yes, you cannot die. You cannot be with your beloved." The God of Dark finished.

"So long as this world turns, you shall walk it's surface." both brothers said together.

"Until you learn the value of life and death, you shall not rest." The God of Light explained simply.

"No, NO!" Salem screamed as she reached out to the gods, only to be sent away into an empty field seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

"Salem was once again a prisoner. Her many fruitless attempts to reunite herself with Ozma turned into spiteful acts against the brothers." Jinn's voice explained as the scene changed again to Ozma's home.

Ruby audibly gasped as she saw Salem attempt to stab herself, and pull the sword out getting no results at all. She yelled out in anger and threw the sword in the direction Ruby was standing in. Ruby ducked in a panic but thankfully the sword never hit her.

"But perhaps the gods weren't as powerful and infallible as they seemed. She lied to them, turned them against one another, they were flawed creators that she, a mere mortal manipulated. If she were to turn the whole of Humanity against them, then she'd be able to rid herself of her own curse. Or she could at least cause them suffering like her own."

The scene transitioned in a puff of blue smoke to a throne room where a bloody axe was thrown at the feet of a King.

"Salem, with a new plan in mind, traveled to each and every Kingdom she could, demonstrating her immortality and bragging about stealing immortality from the Gods."

Salem was shown speaking to various leaders and people, even a few children that were amazed by her immortality.

"With Nobility in awe, she pulled them right into her own scheme. She filled their minds with the idea of never having any loved ones die on them ever again, stealing the power of their creators for themselves, and in turn perfect themselves by design."

Blake watched in shock as a King drew his sword out and with an army from other Kingdoms supporting him, attacked the God of Light in his domain with arrows, balistas and magic.

"They simply had to destroy their creators to become their own masters."

The God of Light shifted into his dragon form and dispelled all of the attacks with ease.

"The brothers had hoped Salem would learn from her curse, and she did. She learned the hearts of men were easily swayed..."

"Children, who has led you all astray?!" The God of Light demanded to know as his brother appeared beside him now.

Salem stepped forward, glaring at the two of them. "The one you damned."

"You..." The God of Darkness let out a vicious roar as Salem and all the mages from the Kingdoms fired out magic at the God of Darkness.

He caught the magic easily and looked to the orb of magic in his hands. "My own gifts... Used against me like this? How. DARE YOU!" The God of Darkness yelled as he crushed the orb in his hands and a wave destroyed all of the armies, the populations of the cities, and even the children. Salem was alone again now.

"No... NO!" Salem yelled before the God of Darkness whipped her with his tail, knocking her onto her back.

"You thought there was no greater punishment to bestow upon you?" he asked her.

"I-I'll return! I'll tell everyone on this whole planet about what you did here today! They'll return seeking vengeance!" Salem argued.

The God of Darkness chuckled. "That's where your mistaken, Salem. There IS no one left. You are all that remains of humanity."

Salem's eyes went wide at this revelation. "N-No..."

"This world was a beautiful experiment, but now it is merely a **Remnant** of what it once was. We will learn from this. I hope you learn from yours." The God of Light vanished into nothing.

"You can't leave me! Come back!" Salem ordered as she turned towards the God of Darkness.

"Still demanding things of your creators?" he laughed more. "How selfish." he then vanished in a destructive purple beam of light that shattered the moon in the sky as he blasted through it, sending chunks of the moon slamming into Remnant's surface.

Salem screamed out in despair as pieces of the moon rained down all upon her.

"Once again, Salem was alone as a prisoner." Jinn's voice stated as the scene changed to Salem walking by herself in an abandoned town, overrun with Grimm, animals and plant life.

"She cursed the Gods, cursed the universe, cursed everything but herself for her fate. She wandered for eons, wanting a death that would never come. However, that is when she got an idea."

Salem wandered through the domain the Dark God formerly dwelled in and stopped at the edge of a cliff overlooking the fountain of death.

"If the Fountain of Life had given Salem eternal life, then surely the fountain of death would take it away from her. She was wrong."

Salem dove directly into it, submerging herself as the fountain tried desperately to destroy her, but her immortal body proved to be too durable. Her eyes went wide as she gasped out in agony.

"The fountain of death could not destroy a being of infinite life, instead the fountain of Destruction turned her into a being of infinite life with the pure desire for infinite destruction." Jinn explained as Salem pulled herself out of the fountain, her eyes red and her sclerae black now. "In time, she would find her adversary..."

Ozma awoken in an empty void, looking around. "Where am I?" he asked as the God of Light in his orb form appeared before him.

"You are between worlds, I'm afraid a grave tragedy has befallen your world by the hand of my brother. We have departed from your world. We would however like to give you the chance to return."

"I don't quite understand." Ozma shook his head.

"Mankind is no more, but there will come a time when Mankind will again populate your world. Without our presence however, they will only be a fraction of what they once were." It was then that the four relics started to circle around the God of Light, a staff, a sword, a crown and a lamp.

"Creation, Destruction, choice and Knowledge... These were the ideals humanity was built upon." The God explained. "I leave them behind with the hope that you will use them to remake yourselves for the better."

A yellow sphere suddenly surrounded the four relics. "If brought together, these four relics will summon back my brother and I to your world once more. Humanity will be judged, if your kind has learned to live in harmony and set their differences aside then we shall again live among you and humanity will be made whole once more. But... If your kind is still fighting among themselves, unchanged and demanding more from us than we will give. Mankind will be viewed as irredeemable, and your world will be wiped from existence. Until your task is finished, you will reincarnate, in a manner that ensures that you are never alone."

Oscar watched this, looking down sadly as Ozma collapsed onto his knees. "I'm sorry, but that world... It just isn't as important to me without her." he shook his head. "I'd much rather return to the afterlife to be with her."

The God of Light then took a humanoid shape again and offered a hand to Ozma. "Salem lives. But i must warn you that she is a shadow of the one you fell in love with. Take heed with this warning, where you think you might find comfort you will only find strife... So, what is your-" before he could even Finish Ozma stood up.

"I'll do it."

"Very well." The God of Light nodded. "The fate of our creation is in your hands."

"With that decision, Ozma was reborn into the Remnant of the world..." Jinn's voice said.

Ozma awoken and looked around in shock and confusion as he stood over a beowolf stabbed with a Pitchfork. He was shocked to see his reflection was that of a man with blonde hair and a tanned complexion. He took a step back and looked around to see a man about to be killed by a Beowolf. Picking up the Pitchfork, Ozma threw it in the direction of the Beowolf who swatted it aside.

Sliding under the Beowolf's legs, Ozma picked up a sword that was stabbed into the ground and sliced the Beowolf's hand off before stabbing it in the chest and turning towards the man he just saved. "Thank you!" he bowed his head. "W-Where'd you learn how to fight like that?" the man asked as Ozma looked to the sword and at his reflection in it again in confusion.

"He had no idea, did he?" Oscar turned away.

The scene shifted as Ozma walked through the busy streets of a town, looking around at the various shops, selling dust crystals and some faunus trapped in cages, desperately trying to escape. Blake turned away from this scene, not wanting to see any more of it.

"The world had changed since Ozma had last walked it's face. Cities were vastly different, new creatures called faunus bore fangs and various other animal features and were locked away in cages. Without the God's blessing, no one could perform magic, no one except for an individual the people of Remnant called 'The Witch'." Jinn's voice explained.

"In his years of traveling the world, Ozma learned of a woman people were calling a Witch that performed dark magics, and lived among the Grimm. Deep in his mind, Ozma knew that it had to be Salem."

Ozma approached a lone dilapidated cottage in the woods. By the window a shadow shifted and Ozma stood on his guard, expecting a Grimm but was surprised when he saw her standing at the door. It was Salem.

They approached one another, linking hands again. "What do we do now?" he asked.

"Whatever we like." she smiled and the two shared a kiss.

As time progressed, the cottage became less run down and more like a normal home with the two sitting by the front porch and having a discussion about what forces brought them back together.

"Ozma and Salem recounted the events that had reunited them, but both withheld information from one another. Salem was afraid Ozma might reject her, blamed the world's end on the Gods. Ozma was unsure of how to gauge the situation especially with regard to the relics and decided to keep them a secret from her. As time had passed, Ozma remembered his conversation with the God of Light clearly, and humanity was still just as divided as ever."

"Are you surprised?" Salem asked Ozma. "This world is Godless now, Humanity has no one to guide them now. Perhaps guidance is all they need to be united." she reasoned.

"What are you suggesting?" Ozma took a sip from his tea.

"I'm saying, **we** could become this world's gods now." she smiled. "Our powers are greater than all others, we both transcend death in different ways, We could mold this world into whatever we want it to be. We can make a true paradise."

Ozma looked down to his cup of tea, deep in thought as Salem put a hand on his shoulder.

"The hearts of men are easily swayed." Jinn repeated.

A flock of Nevermore began descending upon a village when suddenly a glowing wall of energy blocked their attack and then a purple energy enveloped all the Grimm distorting them all out of shape before dissolving in midair as Ozma and Salem floated down from the sky, Ozma held his scepter in hand and Salem was simply holding his hand.

The citizens of this village looked on in awe as the two smiled to one another.

Weiss walked to a set of statues of the pair of them in surprise. "They actually did become Gods..."

Yang wasn't sure how to take this all in. "Where did it go wrong?"

"The two amassed followers, and with them created a Kingdom that was like none other Remnant had seen. At the heart of that Kingdom came a family..."

Ozma, Salem and their four daughters all sat posed while they were being painted before finally the painting was finished. The girls were all dressed in similar colors to the four seasonal maidens.

Transitioning into another scene, this time it was of Salem and Ozma looking at an orb. In this orb were the images of a war zone. "Are we sure this is right?" Ozma asked her.

"We have to purge all that don't believe in us, right? It's the one way we can show that we're serious and that we are Gods." Salem reasoned with him.

Ozma looked towards his own reflection in the mirror now. "Is this, Right? This isn't what he asked me to do..."

"What did you say?" Salem flared up slightly before one of their daughters approached.

"Hey, Mother, Father look what I can do!" the girl wearing an orange dress held a hand in front of her and in that hand formed a ball of ice.

Salem seemed delighted at this, while Ozma seemed troubled now.

"It was a miracle, their children were able to perform magic just like them. But that joyous occasion was very short lived, once Ozma came clean to Salem about what his real mission was, what the relics were and the coming day of Judgment."

"Don't you see? Ozma? None of that matters anymore!" Salem reasoned. "Why would we wanna spend our lives redeeming these worthless humans, when we can just replace them with our own spawn?!" she held her hand out to Ozma who turned away, now troubled before going to his room.

Later that Night Ozma began making his way down the hall and stopped when his youngest daughter tugged at his robe.

"Mommy?" she asked as Salem stood menacingly at the end of the hall, realizing what Ozma was doing.

Ozma grit his teeth and stood in front of his daughters before Salem fired out a blast of red lighting from one of her hands. Ozma countered with a focused beam of magic at her lightning from his staff.

Salem charged forward, yelling out in anger as she clashed with Ozma, slamming him through a wall before Ozma countered, by hitting her with a blast of magic from his staff at point blank, knocking her through several more walls and through the roof.

She flew back full force and the two kept fighting more brutally, with Ozma stabbing her a couple of times, blasting her with magic, Salem dropping pillars and rubble on him, then finally Ozma incinerating her body as the castle was now entirely collapsed.

Ruby gasped in shock as she saw what had befallen their children.

Feeling his wounds overcome him, Ozma collapsed to his back, his aura shattering as Salem reformed from nothing and glared down at him.

"We finally had freedom." she held an orb of fire in her hand.

"I-" before Ozma could say another word to her, she incinerated him.

"Thus began the long and painful cycles of death and rebirth for Ozma."

Ozma changed between various reincarnations, including a frail old man, a despondent man who would rather drink from a flask and another old man who shut himself away in his house.

"Some of his lives were spent in mourning, and others spent trying to just forget everything. But no matter what happened, Ozma's mind eventually turned back to face the task that was his burden."

Ozma now had a family in this reincarnation, with two silver eyed daughters and a loving wife. He heard the sound of a bell ringing outside and stood up from the dinner table, grabbing his cane for a fight.

Later on the same reincarnation began making adjustments to the cane that Oscar was now looking at in his hands. He stowed it away in a safe, only for his next reincarnation to find it.

"As the centuries continued, Ozma discovered the importance of living with the souls he was paired with, rather than living around them." Jinn explained. "However, no matter where Ozma went, Salem's presence was felt. If Humanity was to become united again, one thing was clear..."

Ruby pondered for a moment. "Salem needed to be destroyed..."

"Knowing that any mortal means stood no chance against Salem, Ozma sought out the relics and the power and knowledge they may be able to give him."

In the vault of Knowledge Ozma looked up at Jinn now.

"Armed with the Knowledge I could provide, Ozma believed he'd be able to fulfill his promise to the God of Light."

"Where might i find the other relics" Ozma asked.

"He asked me his questions."

"What abilities do the relics have?" he pressed further.

"Though I gave him my answers..."

"How can I destroy Salem?"

"... not all were to his liking..."

The past Jinn simply smirked and leaned forward. "You can't."

Ozma fell to his knees in complete despair as Jinn finished her story before Ozpin, now in the present looked down and away from them all as the snow began to fall again.

* * *

**Commentary**: The Lost Fable, finally done. Yeah, this is a chapter I've dreaded doing for a while, but I did it, and I added to it where I could. I figured I'd add more character reactions throughout, rather than the very few we got in the chapter originally. Then there's Ozma and Salem's fight. That's pretty much all I really added here. I would add more like the origin of the faunus that was apparently cut, but since we still don't know those details, I can't really make that one up. So I more or less went the safe route here. Next chapter we check out a spooky farm though!


	4. Chapter 4: Lies and Half-truths

Ozpin held a hand over his mouth as he sobbed in shame of what the others had just discovered about him and the fact that they knew the entire truth about Salem now.

"You heard her, didn't you?! Salem can't be killed!" Yang yelled out in anger.

"I-I just..." Ozpin was at a loss for words.

"How could you think any of that was okay to keep from us?!" Yang asked.

He just remained silent now as he didn't know how to respond.

"Professor..." Ruby approached now, kneeling in front of him. "Please tell us, what is your plan to defeat Salem?"

"I... I don't have one." Ozpin shook his head.

Before any more could be said, Qrow stormed over to Ozpin and grabbed him by the collar before punching him harshly in the face and dropping him.

Ozpin fell to the snow with a cut on Oscar's lip that healed with his aura.

"No one wanted me. I was cursed. You... You made me feel like I belong somewhere." Qrow turned away as Ozpin looked back to him regretfully. "Meeting you was the worst luck of my life."

"I...I'm... I'm sorry." Ozpin felt a tear trickle down his face before Oscar suddenly had control back.

"We're not done here yet!" Yang yelled at him with red eyes. "Tell him we're not done!"

Oscar held his head and tried to get Ozpin out but it wasn't working. "Gah! I can't get him out! It's like he's locked himself in my head!"

Yang's left hand was starting to shake again, this time it was more in rage. Blake wanted to step over to calm her, but wasn't sure how she should approach Yang, Weiss stopped her before she made anything worse by putting a hand on her shoulder.

Ruby put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Hey, calm down."

"Calm down?! What's there to calm down about! This whole trip has been pointless! It's been for nothing! We have no plan, we're stranded out here in the snow, and there's no way we can beat Salem!" Yang screamed out in frustration before suddenly her knee was struck harshly by a cane with a skull on the end of it.

"She's right, you know." Maria interjected. "Look, I don't like it as much as any of you. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that apparently we're humanity's second outing. But we need to get moving before we freeze to death out here in the snow." she reasoned. "I may be old, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna die out here in the cold because of you kids. There's a path up ahead from what I can see. Paths usually lead to some place."

"She's right, Yang. We can question him when we get to Argus." Weiss stated.

With that the team set out to finish taking all of their stuff out from the train, Yang loaded a couple of bags on Bumblebee, while Ruby and Blake carried their own backpacks.

"Blake, I wish I could tell you, sorry for that-"

"No need to apologize Ruby." Blake shook her head. "It's already been a very long day for all of us."

Qrow took a long swig from his flask and shook his head.

"Hey..." Ruby walked over to Oscar, who was still sitting in the snow the entire time. "You dropped this." she handed Ozpin's cane back to him.

"Am I just... Another one of his lives?" Oscar asked.

"Of course not Oscar, you're your own-" before Ruby could finish Qrow put his hand on Ruby's shoulder and turned her forward to where the others were starting to walk.

"Don't lie to him, Ruby. We're better than he is." Qrow stated as he walked ahead of her with a slight hunch as the group finally started through the forest. Oscar was notably walking further back from the group now.

* * *

Crystals glistened and the chunk of rock that Salem's Evernight Castle stood upon would see a shadow cast upon it as a Mistral Airship landed right outside of the Castle. Tyrian stood by the entrance, chuckling deviously as he normally would while watching the ship park itself and the three individuals inside of it step out before it flew off. Hazel, Emerald and Mercury looked worn out and fairly defeated.

"Welcome, Welcome! So glad to have you all home again!" Tyrian laughed as he approached.

Emerald and Mercury stopped while Hazel kept walking ahead. "Come on, let's not waste our time anymore." The two started walking forward again.

"Where's our fall maiden?" Tyrian asked as Emerald stopped.

"Emerald." Mercury took her arm but she shoved herself away from him.

"Oh no... Don't tell me..." Tyrian snickered now, in an almost mocking tone. "Did something happen to our fall maiden?!"

Emerald grit her teeth s she drew her weapons out and struck Tyrian across the face, leaving a sizable cut. "If you don't shut up, I will cut off far more than your tail!"

He leaned in closer to her now, with just a devious smile on his face. "Careful now, child... Cinder isn't here to protect you anymore."

Mercury then, got between them, and shoved Tyrian off of her. "Back off, Freak."

"Oh, don't be mistaken... I am in mourning as you are. For you see, you have failed our queen. That itself is a tragedy..." Tyrian laughed as the trio walked into the castle.

Upon entering the meeting room, Watts and Tyrian both moved to their seats while Salem sat at the end of the table, leaning forward with her hands folded and her eyes closed, Hazel looked back at Emerald and Mercury, then knelt down in front of her. The two followed suit.

"Would you, like to tell me how it is... That you failed so spectacularly?" Salem asked as she opened her eyes.

Hazel glanced up at her now. "The faunus militia led by Ghira Belladonna split our for-"

Salem raised a hand up, silencing him. "Let me rephrase the question; Who is responsible for your defeat at Haven?"

Hazel glanced down. "Adam Taurus is one of the responsible parties for our defeat. For had he not complicated our negotiation plans with Sienna Khan by killing her, we would have had less issue."

"Who else." Salem glared forward.

"..." Hazel paused for a long moment. "Me... I am. I take responsibility for our failure at Haven."

Immediately Salem stood up and knocked the table over, knocking Tyrian over along with it as he stumbled up to his feet while Watts stood up and started to back away. "But that's not fair, is it?! We all know who's to blame for our failure!"

With a hand raised forward, a dark glyph appeared below Hazel's feet and grabbed at him, pulling him to the ground with Grimm arms and suffocating him as he struggles against them.

"Emerald." Salem turned towards her as Mercury took a step away from her nervously. "I want you to tell me who's to blame for your failure at Haven."

Looking away, Emerald closed her eyes. "Cinder!" she called out. "We failed at Haven because of Cinder, Ma'am!"

Placing a cold hand on Emerald's shoulder she smiled down to her. "That is correct. Cinder will be left to toil in her isolation until she does something to redeem herself."

"Wait, Cinder's alive?!" Emerald was surprised.

"Really?!" Mercury was just as shocked to hear.

"Oh come on now, I really doubt that's possible." Watts scoffed.

"Are you questioning our Goddess?!" Tyrian snapped at Watts who held his arms up in surrender as Salem glared at him now.

"Of course not..."

"I think it's important that we remember what it is that drives us." Salem turned towards Hazel. "Justice." She looked at Tyrian "Reverence." she looked down at Emerald. "Love. However, the moment you put your own wants before mine. They will be lost to you. This isn't a threat, or a promise. It's merely the truth. The path to get you what you want is through me."

With that Hazel was released and he stood up, catching his breath. "I have more to report, Ma'am." he stated.

There was a pause of silence now as Salem looked to him, forming another glyph under his feet should this news not be anything important. "The children, they're taking the relic of Knowledge to Atlas."

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Tyrian leaned forward in excitement.

"But they're being led... By Ozpin." Hazel looked down.

"Already?!" Tyrian glanced over to Salem and the others.

"He's the only person who might get through to Ironwood, if that happens, then-" Watts began to ponder but stopped when he noticed the windows start to crack slightly as Salem grit her teeth.

"Leave." she stated as a simple warning.

"i can stop them still, your grace I-" before Tyrian could bargain with her more, she shot a glare to him that immediately gave him the signal that it was time to leave.

"We're leaving." Hazel stated to Emerald and Mercury as they exited the room with Watts and Tyrian.

Taking a deep breath in Salem, seemingly calmed down. That was till she opened her eyes again.

The sound of shattering glass could be heard from outside the room.

* * *

The snow was still falling heavily as Team RWBY, Oscar, Qrow and Maria were traveling along the path.

"This isn't going to let up anytime soon." Qrow lamented.

"I just wanna get this stupid lamp to Atlas and be done with it." Weiss groaned.

"Agreed." Blake held a hand in front of her face as the snow was blowing against everyone.

"I thought you said 'Paths lead some place'" Yang mocked in Maria's voice to her as she kept walking and pushing Bumblebee.

"Do you have anything better to do, than to bully the elderly?" Maria spat back at Yang who groaned in annoyance.

"Hey guys... Do you hear that?" Oscar asked as he stopped now, looking around for the source of a noise he was hearing.

"What do you mean?" Ruby stopped as well and tried to listen in. "Oh! I think I hear it now too!" it was the sound of metal creaking, opening and closing repeatedly.

"Is that a gate?" Blake asked as she started slightly ahead and stopped when she saw a sign. "Brunswick Farm?" she read aloud now as the rest of the group followed.

"Looks like some place to stay." Qrow shrugged his shoulders. "Beats freezing to death out here."

"Let's see if they have any place for us for the night at least." Ruby nodded, and now leading the group forward, pushed the gate open. As everyone entered the property, the gate slammed shut harshly behind them...

* * *

**Commentary**: Now we're onto this chapter, where the cat's out o the bag with Ozpin and everyone's mad. I didn't have Qrow punch Oscar in a comedic manner here. Also, Salem's scream happens off screen with all that's heard being the shattering glass. Next chapter things get spooky, with Brunswick Farms, but also the return of a fan favorite character...


	5. Chapter 5: Stormy Front

Snow continued to fall harshly as the entrance to what appeared to be a main house on the farm's property was approached. "Is it open?" Ruby asked as Yang was peering into the window.

"Does it really matter?" Yang asked. "We can apologize for the break in later."

"Well can't we knock first?" Weiss asked, pounding on the door.

"Hello?!" Ruby called out. "Is anyone home?!"

After a couple of minutes of waiting, the group decided to brute force the door. Yang and Qrow kicked it down, weapons aimed and ready for combat, but that didn't seem to be necessary as the house looked dusty and abandoned.

Oscar looked around the entrance. "Maybe they're not home?"

"Can we all just get inside?" Maria asked. "I'm freezing out here. Close the door as well."

Weiss and Blake decided to go upstairs to check the rooms while the rest of the group focused more on getting a working fire going. "I guess we'll sleep around here." Yang mused before yawning. "I feel really tired..."

"Same." Qrow stretched.

"Maybe we should-" before Ruby could share her own thoughts, a scream was heard from upstairs.

"Weiss!" Ruby and Yang immediately ran over, with Qrow following not too far behind.

"What's going on up here?!" Yang asked as Weiss pointed to the beds in the room.

Yang's eyes went wide as well.

"W-What's going on?" Ruby asked as Yang held a hand over her mouth and immediately pulled her sister away from the room as she tried to look back at it, while Weiss was shivering slightly now. Laying in the bed were a couple of corpses, looking as though they died in their sleep at the same time.

Sitting in front of the fireplace now, Ruby gave Weiss a blanket and looked down. "W-What happened to them?" Weiss asked as Qrow entered the house again.

"The other houses are exactly the same." Qrow shook his head. "Everyone died in bed. It's like some sort of horror story out here."

"What could have done this?" Ruby asked as Qrow shook his head.

"I don't know, but we should probably leave as soon as this snow's cleared." Qrow insisted.

"Well so long as we're here." Yang stood up. "Why don't I try and look for some kind of cart we could attach to Bumblebee that everyone can sit in."

Blake stood herself up as well now. "I'll go with you. We can cover more ground that way."

Narrowing her eyes, Yang glanced over to the others, Weiss was still rather cold and shaken up, Oscar was busy kindling the fire, Ruby was glancing over Maria's shoulder at what she was reading and Qrow was busy drinking.

"Fine." Yang walked ahead as Blake looked back to the others. Weiss and Ruby gave a thumbs up to her as she followed after Yang.

"Wanna go look for something to eat Weiss?" Ruby asked. "There might be stuff in the cellar downstairs."

Weiss was still rubbing her arms. "Maybe in a few minutes. I'm still just trying to get the mental image of what I saw out of my head."

Oscar then glanced over Maria's shoulder in interest of what she was reading as well. "So the owner of this place was a man named Bartleby?"

"Yeah, it seems so. A real self starter if these entries are anything to go off of." Maria remarked.

* * *

The door to a storehouse opened with Blake and Yang entering it and looking around. "Let's just find this thing and be done with it already." Yang insisted as she walked further in.

Blake followed behind her and glanced around as well. "A wagon should be enough, right?" she asked before accidentally bumping into something and knocking a glass bottle over.

Yang glanced up and saw what she thought was Adam waiting outside in the snow, unsheathing his sword and looking her way. Though when she blinked he was gone and she caught her breath. Her hand was still shaking in response though.

"Yang! Are you okay?" Blake asked her, now holding onto her shaking hand.

"I'm... I'd be lying if I said I was fine." Yang shook her head. "Ever since Beacon and what happened with Adam. I haven't been the same."

Looking towards the window Blake took a deep breath. "I heard about what happened before I showed up, with Adam and Weiss... And you."

"It was my fault Weiss almost died back there." Yang admitted. "Maybe I am in way over my head and that I should just take Ruby and go home. I should have gotten myself killed..."

"Adam... Is a person who likes to manipulate people around him. Make them seem small. He brings them down to his level and makes them feel weak." Blake explained. "He did that to me for years. Using my parents leaving the White Fang and other deserting members of the White Fang to call me a coward. But really he just wanted to keep me there, make me feel insignificant. He does that to everyone. The only reason I got under his skin so much at Haven was because I stood my ground against him."

Yang just stared forward again, wondering if she was just seeing things or not. "I see him every now and again even when I know he's not there. I feel like I'm going mad."

Glancing over to the broken jar on the floor, Blake turned to Yang. "I've... Had similar experiences." she shook her head. "Look... If Adam ever rears his head around us again, I swear we'll be ready for him."

Yang smiled slightly at this before Blake spoke again.

"I promise that I'll protect you from him." she held Yang's hand up as it was calmed, before Yang's expression soured and she let go of her hand.

"I see a cart right here." Yang pointed to it. "We'll attach it to Bumblebee in the morning and we'll be good to go. Mission accomplished. Look, I'm just... Really tired." Yang stormed off.

"What did I say?" Blake asked as the door closed behind Yang.

* * *

The doors to Lil' Miss's Tavern opened as Cinder walked in, still wearing her disguise as she sat down in front of her. "So, you have the information I seek then?" she asked.

"We do." Lil' Miss Malachite smiled to her, as she blew a puff of smoke out. "Word on the street is they were last seen boarding the Argus Limited a few weeks ago. Which likely would mean they're on their way to-"

"Atlas." Cinder stood up and began to make her exit, pondering how she'd be making that trip.

"You know, you've been quite the valuable customer." Lil Miss Malachite declared as she tapped her cigarette holder onto her ashtray. "Cinder."

At the mention of her name, Cinder stopped and turned around.

"I don't often get double business from clients." she chuckled as Cinder heard a sound from the upper balcony of the tavern.

"What?!" she looked up towards the individual standing at the top of the balcony. It was none other than Neopolitan, smirking down on her.

"Maybe put away the good glasses." Lil' Miss Looked towards one of her guards who nodded.

Neo's cocky expression turned to one of pure malice as she then jumped off the Balcony and descended upon Cinder.  
_  
Kill for Kill,  
Eye for Eye,  
Blood for Blood,  
It's time to die,  
Retribution tastes so sweet!_

Cinder raised an arm up in defense as Neo shattered into glass before charging her from her side, slamming into her with her umbrella before backing away. "Neo?! What're you doing?!" Cinder demanded as Neo opened her umbrella up before charging again at her.

Neo closed her umbrella and swung it at Cinder's head, the maiden being able to block it with both of her arms before countering with a punch that Neo blocked with her umbrella before hitting her stomach with the handle and her face with the side of the Umbrella, making her stagger back.

_Gone's the Life,  
That he gave,  
Now revenge is all I crave  
Retaliation's soon complete_

Swinging her umbrella more, Neo opened it before charging forward and pushing Cinder back towards Lil' Miss Malachite's table, where she held a hand up and caught her ashtray while enjoying the show.

Cinder grit her teeth in anger, pushing off the table with a slight boost of wind from her maiden power before slamming her fist down on top of Neo's now closed Umbrella. The mute girl merely tilted her head quizzically.

_I was nowhere,  
I had no one,  
I felt nothing.  
Lost without a voice and on my own._

Cinder swung at Neo with a flurry of punches that Neo dodged and blocked with her arms behind her back. She then switched to kicks that Neo moved her umbrella in front of her to block and dodge, smirking as Cinder tripped and fell back. She did however end up taking a kick to the face as Cinder sprung up from her missed attack and landed herself onto the bar.

_Then a candle's flame  
Brought a brand new name,  
But now you've stolen everything and I'm all alone._

Neo jumped up and with her umbrella open, gently floated down onto the bar, landing in a crouching pose as Cinder threw a kick out at her. She dodged back as Cinder spun around before countering with her own kick that met Cinder's. The two exchanged a few more kicks before Neo sneakily hooked her umbrella on Cinder's shoulder and pulled her forward, vaulting over her shoulder.

_I had One Thing,  
And you've taken it from me,  
A single light,  
A single friend,  
But you made that end,_

Neo glanced over to her side and flung a bowl over at Cinder with her Umbrella. Cinder blocked it with her Grimm arm before another one was thrown immediately after it that she caught. Neo then shattered it with the tip of her Umbrella.

_I had One Thing,  
To help escape the misery_

She then followed up with another swipe of her umbrella that Cinder back stepped from before she opened it. She exchanged more kicks with Cinder while backing away using a bit of lift from her Umbrella to aid her fast movements before quickly closing it.

_But now it's all disarrayed,  
You took my whole life away,  
You sent me back to nothing now you'll pay,  
Pay!_

Neo Jumped up and threw another kick out at Cinder who ducked under it and slashed upward with her Grimm arm. Her slash was countered as Neo backed away but then did a front flip kick that landed her in a split right in front of Cinder with a smirk on her face.

Swinging her Umbrella at Cinder's feet, she missed her next strike on the maiden before Cinder caught her foot at her next kick and swung her around, throwing her. Neo easily caught herself from this with the help of her umbrella, landing on her feet with a smirk as Cinder then jumped off of a chair with two back flip kicks aimed at Neo that were easily back stepped from.

In desperation, Cinder started slashing outward at Neo with her hands, each attack was dodged and blocked except for one last kick that knocked Neo right onto a table.

Cinder landed herself right onto the ceiling and with her fist burning from maiden power, she punched at Neo, shattering the table and landing herself on the balcony Neo started on.

"That's enough ladies!" Lil' Miss Malachite declared. "Dinner and a show is fun and all, but I think it's time you take it outside." she pointed to the window that Cinder glanced out of for a moment before Neo suddenly kicked her straight through it and outside.

Cinder did not land on her feet and tumbled slightly before catching herself and smirking as Neo shattered into glass before her eyes.

"Hmph. You've certainly gotten stronger." Cinder remarked as she started to walk down the mostly empty alleyway. "You're not the only one who has, though." She formed a fireball in her hand and fired it out into the dense fog.

Neo's Umbrella spun as she deflected the attack before walking forward, Roman Torchwick's hat being worn on her head now. A sad expression was on her face as well as she stared towards Cinder.

"I don't have time for your misplaced blame. I didn't kill your boss. If you want revenge, why not take it up with 'Little Red'." Cinder scoffed as she turned to leave Neo.

This response wasn't satisfactory as Neo immediately charged through the fog and Cinder formed two glass blades in her hands, blocking and parrying each attack Neo was throwing her way. "Listen to me! You're not the only one with a grudge against Ruby!"

Her pleas were mostly unheard as Neo back flipped and kicked at Cinder with both of her legs before spinning her umbrella around and just at a moment where Cinder raised both of her arms to strike her she instead was hit in the face by the Handle of Neo's Umbrella.

"LISTEN!" Cinder yelled, now pointing a sword out and creating a gust of wind that forced Neo back before she floated up, glowing with the power of the Fall maiden again and holding her swords in her hands, glaring down at Cinder. "You can waste your time dying against me, or you and I can team up and talk about killing Ruby together."

Taking a step back and thinking on it, Neo nodded as Cinder landed herself on the ground, dropping her swords and offering a hand out for a handshake.

Hesitantly, Neo shook it and smirked to Cinder.

"Excellent, now we can discuss our full terms."

Neo rolled her eyes and pointed to her mouth, just as Cinder realized what she had just asked.

The fall maiden brought her hand to her face in slight embarrassment. "Oh, right."

* * *

Descending into the Basement of the Brunswick house, the last thing Weiss and Ruby expected to find was a bar. "We should keep my uncle away from this." Ruby lamented.

Weiss looked down as she started towards the back door. "My Mother's similar. She drinks a lot when she gets upset." She saw the lock on the door and wondered if there might be a key around.

"Oh?" Ruby was perplexed as she stepped towards the locked door now.

"Never mind this talk." Weiss shook her head. "I just wanna eat and get some sleep."

With that, Ruby cut the lock off with Crescent Rose and merely smiled to Weiss who opened the door and instinctively flipped up the light switch.

The lights in the store room flickered on briefly before burning out. "I guess working electricity was kind of a dumb expectation to have." Ruby sighed as Weiss took Myrtenaster out.

"Don't worry, I got this." a flame appeared at the tip of it, and with a slight wave of her fingers, the flame split and lit all the candles around the cellar.

"Whoa..." Ruby looked around at the supplies around the room now. Mostly more barrels likely filled with alcohol, but there was some cans on a shelf. Rushing over to it in a blur of rose petals Ruby eagerly grabbed a can that caught her eye. "WEISS!"

she scooted back over to Weiss, holding up a can of shrimp flavored beans. "BEANS!" she proclaimed.

"Canned food?" Weiss seemed a bit turned off by it. "I suppose that's probably all we could really expect from an abandoned farm. I think there's a couple of more cans there you can grab for everyone else."

"Right, right!" Ruby walked over and started to grab the cans.

"Say Ruby?" Weiss stopped by the exit as Ruby looked up to her.

"Yes, Weiss?"

Letting out a sigh she knew she had to ask this. "Do we really still have to go to Atlas? I mean we know the truth about Ozpin now. So why even bother?"

"Weiss, come on. We still have a duty to keep those relics out of Salem's hands. Even if we can't beat her we can at least keep it far away from her and some place safe." Ruby insisted.

"I'm sorry, I'm just really tired." Weiss shook her head as she stepped out of the basement with Ruby following behind her now.

The cellar door in the back of the basement lifted up slightly before slamming down.

* * *

**Commentary**: So the group is just trying to get by in Brunswick, with morale at a complete low. Then of course we got Cinder's scene with Neo's return. I did extend the fight slightly, but only really taking into mind something that was cut from what we got in the show.


	6. Chapter 6: Alone in the Woods

Dawn arrived as beams of sunlight shone through the window and right into Ruby's face while she sprung up from where she was. "My eyes." she grunted, holding them as she stood up and saw that it was day time.

"Hey guys?" she asked as everyone else woke up, Maria was leaning on a sofa with a book on her lap, Oscar had passed out on the other side of it, Weiss, Blake and Yang were all huddled up on the floor and Qrow was asleep by the front door.

"Guys?" Ruby shoved her sister slightly.

"Just a little longer, Ruby." she insisted.

Ruby then walked over to Qrow, thinking he'd be able to motivate them to get up. "Uncle Qrow." Ruby shook his shoulder as he shoved her off of him in slight annoyance as he wanted to sleep more, seeing the empty bottle by his feet, Ruby grit her teeth in anger and threw the bottle across the room, breaking it. "WAKE UP!" she yelled.

"Okay, Okay!" Qrow stood himself up as everyone else followed suit.

"I don't like it here, I wanna get going now!" Ruby argued again.

Stepping outside, Yang went to get the flatbed cart, quickly stepping out with it and pulling Bumblebee's hook out to connect them.

Ruby looked to the relic in her hand now.

"Ruby, I've been thinking. What if we just leave that here?" Blake asked.

"What are you guys saying?" Ruby seemed weirded out by her apathetic tone.

"I mean if say... You threw it down the well right there. Who would find it?" Yang asked.

"There's really no point in going to Atlas either so we're done, right?" Weiss brought up. "We throw it down the well, Salem can't find it and we did our job. I'm tired of this all anyway."

Ruby felt compelled slightly as she started to walk toward the well.

"Guys, you can't be serious." Ruby felt ganged up on now as her three teammates stood behind her, each with apathetic expressions on their faces. "Maybe... Maybe you're right though." she felt overcome with this sense of hopelessness and uncaring as well...

Holding the Lamp of Knowledge out over the well, Ruby looked to it.

"Just drop it and be over with already." Qrow rolled his eyes as he went to adjust the cart slightly before one of the tires suddenly flattened. "Dammit." he cursed under his breath. "Oscar." he pointed to him. "Fix that so we can go."

"Where are you going?" Maria asked now.

"Where do ya think?" he held his flask up before walking into the house and starting towards the basement.

"Idiot." Maria shook her head before flipping through the next page of the journals she was reading.

With a deep breath, Ruby closed her eyes and turned back towards her teammates. "No."she then started to pull her arm back when a set of red eyes at the bottom of the well startled her and she dropped the lamp down into it. "NO- NO!" she glanced down the well.

"Whatever, we're done here." Blake walked off to help Oscar towards the cart.

"You guys can't be serious?!" Ruby glared angrily at her teammates.

"Why? it's been done right? We did it. No one will find it." Weiss shrugged her shoulders.

"I saw something at the bottom of the well." Ruby insisted. "I saw eyes down there!"

Yang glanced down but saw nothing. "You're seeing things sis. C'mon we can get out of here and meet the others in Argus."

"No!" Ruby stomped her foot down. "I'm not leaving without the lamp!"

Furrowing her eyebrows Yang stepped forward. "Fine, we'll get the stupid lamp."

"No, I'll go too." Weiss added.

"We'll all go." Blake rolled her eyes.

* * *

The team jumped down the well in search of the relic. "Where is it?" Yang asked.

"Look for the glow. The water current down here couldn't have carried it far." Blake pointed out as Ruby started forward.

Back by the steps of the main house, Maria was flipping through the journal when her eyes went wide. "Oh no."

"What is it?" Oscar asked as he glanced over at the journal Maria had, taking a break from pumping air into the tire again, seeing the drawing of some kind of Grimm labeled _**The Apathy**_. It looked like a hauntingly thin and lanky humanoid figure with piercing red eyes.

"They're in danger down there. We're all in danger!"

Ruby spotted the glow and stepped forward around a corner, finding the lamp. "There you are!" she clipped it to her belt again and was about to turn around when she heard sounds beside her and she could almost feel breathing down her neck.

Her eyes went wide and she screamed. A scream that snapped her teammates out of their apathetic stupors before they started towards the direction Ruby had went.

The apathy started reaching their hands out towards, Ruby for the relic, but Ruby quickly brought her scythe out and deflected their hands with a couple of spins while she backed away, glancing over to her teammates.

A horde of Apathy walked around the corner as everyone's eyes went wide. Immediately Ruby opened fire, but her bullets did little more than make one of them tilt it's head before it let out a blood curdling scream that made everyone's weapons feel heavier as they were arming up.

"RUN, NOW!" Maria called out to them, now in the tunnel herself. "THIS WAY!" She ran ahead of them as they all followed after her through this maze of a waterway. Almost every turn lead to more Apathy standing there and waiting to claim the five as prey before they finally reached a hole in the wall that lead them to the cellar.

As they ran into the cellar another blood curdling scream stopped them in their tracks and they slowed down. Everyone fell to the ground as the Apathy started to slowly and creepily make their way over to the group.

Ruby, attempted to stand herself up but couldn't as she reached for her weapon, but stopped when she saw one of the Apathy nearing Blake.

"It's... Okay..." Blake stated tiredly and coldly as the dead look in her eyes showed that she was giving in.

Resisting as much as she could, Ruby let out a scream. "BLAKE!" she yelled as her eyes suddenly flashed with power and the apathy were blasted back, instantly rejuvenating everyone in the room due to the Grimm's effect dying down for the time.

Maria seemed more surprised by this than the others. "What just happened?!" she asked.

"No time to ask, we just need to go!" Ruby insisted.

"Yang get the door!" Weiss called out as the two approached the stairs while Ruby grabbed Blake by the arm and tried to help her to the stairs before the apathy let out another scream, causing everyone to fall over again, Yang fell over on the stairs.

"No! No..." she called out, reaching for the door into the basement, but she couldn't quite reach it.

Meanwhile just outside the door, Qrow sat there, drinking to his heart's content out of a bottle of wine, muttering under his breath about Ozpin and Raven.

Ruby felt overpowered as Blake's eyes looked more dulled than the last time, she didn't even have the energy to speak up or do anything except lay there.

"Blake..." Ruby felt her eyes grow heavy as Maria crawled over to her, covering her ears with her hands.

"What color are your eyes?" Maria asked.

"W-What?" Ruby was confused.

"Tell me, what color are your eyes! This is a life or death situation!"

"Silver." Ruby spoke up as Maria gasped slightly.

"Ruby, I need you to think about everyone you care about and love." Maria instructed her.

Silver hues glanced down at the approaching Apathy before Maria moved herself more into Ruby's line of sight. "Don't focus on them! Focus on the people you love! Focus more on your desire to protect them."

Closing her eyes slightly, Ruby felt that strong desire build up in her mind before suddenly she opened her eyes and in a blinding flash filled the room with a silver light that vaporized the apathy, giving everyone their energy back.

Yang immediately rushed up the stairs and with her Ember Celica gauntlet shot the door open, right into the basement bar where Qrow sat and turned around.

"We're leaving now, you drunk idiot!" Maria insisted as Qrow grunted in annoyance while everyone started to frantically run from the house.

Blake was still holding her head as Yang let out an annoyed sigh and grabbed her arm while running for the door.

"OSCAR! OSCAR! START THE ENGINE NOW!" Yang insisted as Maria hopped right into the wagon.

Ruby and Weiss started grabbing the bottles behind the bar and throwing them into the opening of the cellar where the Apathy Grimm were starting to climb out.

"Hey! What're you doing!?" Qrow seemed angry as he tried to snatch a bottle of Alcohol Weiss then threw at the ground and set ablaze with some burn dust from her weapon.

"We're leaving." Weiss stated flatly before grabbing Qrow by the arm with Ruby and dragging him out.

"No, I'm not done!" Qrow struggled against them but his eyes immediately went wide when he saw an Apathy Grimm step out of the cellar door on fire.

He immediately stayed silent as Yang hopped onto the driver's seat of Bumblebee and drove off into the forest, leaving the now burning Property of Brunswick Farm in the dust behind them.

* * *

As they drove off, Maria looked to a journal, handing it to Oscar. "The Apathy, they're not a particularly strong form of Grimm. They do however drain your will to live." she explained. "Bartleby's estate was hemorrhaging money towards the end... He needed to cut corners. One of those corners was huntsmen protection. But for that he needed everyone calm."

Oscar then looked into the journal and opened it. "Managed to get two away from their horde. The things were a pain to bring back, but I got the bastards into the cellar. Wife thinks I'm just sealing the waterway entrance. I'll seal it tomorrow and tell her once these things take the edge off everyone. I'm tired."

Leaning on her cane Maria took a deep breath. "The next page proves that his plan succeeded and that he sealed the waterway entrance, but not before the rest of the Apathy's horde followed their missing pair. So Bartleby sealed the entrance and his plan worked, No one was angry, scared or sad... No one felt anything... And then no one was left." Maria finished, flipping through the remaining pages of the book that had less and less words, ending on _**I'm Tired**_. before she looked at the book and chucked it out the side of the cart and into the snow, the volume cover having a _**VIII**_ on it.

"I'm sorry about what I said Ruby, about giving up and not going to Atlas." Weiss confessed.

Yang stopped Bumblebee for a moment. "I'm sorry too... We have to get that lamp somewhere safe. We can worry about what happens next after it is."

"It isn't your fault though." Blake shook her head. "It was those... Things. I hope I never encounter anything like them again."

"I hope not either." Ruby pouted.

Maria looked to her cane and took a deep breath. "I should have realized it sooner. But I've never seen a settlement withered away like that. I suppose I'm not as good as I used to be back in the day."

Ruby then sat herself up slightly. "That reminds me, Miss Calavera, how do you know so much about the Grimm? And down in the cellar you knew exactly what to say to make my eyes... Do whatever that is." she shook her head. "How do you know so much?"

A slight chuckle escaped Maria's mouth. "Isn't it obvious girl? I had silver eyes and I was a huntress. I was known as **_The Grimm Reaper_**."

* * *

**Commentary**: Not too much done differently here. Although the name of the Grimm reaper I have alluded to multiple times in the past. At least a couple, give er take a few volumes ago. Next chapter we finally arrive in Argus!


	7. Chapter 7: Grimm Reaper

A lone figure began walking across a lone rickety bridge between cliffs in a valley, held up by nothing other than a few ropes. This figure was clearly female, wearing a dark blue outfit with a hood, her skin was a light brown, her hair was black and a skull mask was on her face.

Something was heard in the distance as the figure stopped right in the middle of the bridge and took out two small skull staves that suddenly unfolded into small sickles that she held forward.

A nevermore was flying in her direction. Smiling slightly under her mask, the figure threw one of her weapons out and it stabbed into the Nevermore's shoulder, causing it to lower it's altitude slightly and slam right through the bride.

This hooded figure didn't falter at this, even as she fell, she merely pressed a trigger on her weapon and pulled herself towards the weapon stabbed into the Nevermore's shoulder with Gravity Dust. Now atop the Nevermore, she sliced at it's back, causing it to screech out in pain before throwing it into a cliff face and pressing the trigger of her weapon that was stabbed into the beast's shoulder, steering it right into that cliff face as she jumped off and grabbed her weapon as the Nevermore fell onto the top of another slightly lower cliff.

Descending down upon it, the skull masked woman sliced down on the Nevermore's neck, decapitating it and smirking up towards another two that were coming her way.

One fired feathers at her that she cut through and deflected with ease, the other dove right for her and knocked her back, disarming her. Gritting her teeth under her mask the masked woman then focused herself and her eyes lit up with a powerful silver light. Both of the Nevermore fell out of the sky and collapsed into dust.

Taking a deep breath, the woman picked her weapons up, putting them away and took out a rather old looking scroll, messaging about her mission being finished before her scroll was suddenly shot out of her hands.

A group of assassins approached her from all sides, with a faunus woman wearing a suit now approaching her directly. "Ah... That's quite the fancy trick now in'it?" she chuckled.

The woman readied her stance, with her weapons out and not even saying a single word.

"I'm afraid it comes with quite the hefty Price, Love'~" the woman chuckled, crushing a stone under her foot.

"I don't think you realize who you're messing with." the hooded woman retorted back.

"Course I do! You're the Grimm Reaper! My name is Tock, and these next 60 seconds... Will be the last 60 seconds of your life." Tock smiled with her metal teeth before pressing the button on the clock she had clipped to her belt. Her Aura glowed with a brighter power as she unsheathed two swords from her belts and her other assassins came charging at the Grimm Reaper.

Almost immediately the Grimm reaper hooked her sickle around the neck of one assassin trying to flank her and slammed them to the ground before kicking another that was behind her back as she started blocking the attacks Tock was throwing in her direction.

Tock had a confident smile on her face as her clock kept ticking down while she kept her assault up on the Grimm Reaper, despite all her attacks being blocked or parried by her. Feeling rather annoyed by this, the Grimm reaper found an opening in between Tock's attacks and swung at her, but the attack merely bounced off, knocking her back slightly while Tock didn't let up.

Holding a single arm forward, the Grimm Reaper's two sickles began to rotate in front of her, almost hitting the last remaining assassin who had a simple rifle-spear before it combined into a double bladed sickle form.

Grasping her weapon by the central handle, the Grimm Reaper knocked the rifle from the other assassin's hand and sliced right through their aura with one swing and with the next spin she sliced a large gash on their chest, killing them on the spot.

Smiling through her metal teeth, Tock kept deflecting every attack the Grimm Reaper threw at her in an attempt to break her guard before she finally saw her opening after making one of the Reaper's attacks bounce off of her.

Raising her staff up to block, the last thing the Grimm Reaper expected was Tock to bite right through the handle with her metal teeth and then headbutt her in the face, shattering her mask to pieces.

Maria opened her eyes wide in surprise as Tock with her katana sword held behind her shoulder, sliced through her eyes with a single swing of her sabre, shattering her aura and cutting through her eyes in that swing.

Screaming echoed through the valley as Tock's aura finally shattered while the clock rang. "Phew, you certainly made that a close one for me."

Crying in pain, Maria held where her eyes once were while backing away as Tock stepped closer to her. Managing to find one of her sickles, Maria fired a shot off in the direction Tock was, but missing as the faunus just chuckled.

"Pathetic! You know, my boss only wants you dead because of your eyes. But... Seein' as ya ain't gottem no more. Maybe you could convince me to spare your life." Tock taunted as Maria yelled, throwing her weapon forward. "A fighter to the end... I respect that, ya know."

Raising her Katana up for the strike, Tock readied herself for the kill, when suddenly Maria found her other sickle, pressing the trigger on it, the other one Magnetized towards it's partner and stabbed into Tock's back.

Tock let out a scream as she fell forward before Maria swung out with her other sickle, decapitating her.

* * *

In the back of the cart attached to Bumblebee Maria simply shook her head as she finished her story. "I wasn't a fighter though. Immediately after that, I gave up, I got scared they would come back to finish their job if I showed my face again."

Qrow sat up, now feeling a bit sobered up. "You're the Grimm Reaper. You were a legend. I based my weapon on you!"

"Well I'm certainly not the best influence if you turned out how you did." Maria scoffed. "I believed a hunter should stand their ground. Yet all I did was cower and hide."

"We thought you died all those years ago when you went missing." Qrow looked away in surprise.

Maria just let out a sigh. "In a way I did die though. I wish I could have done more. I will just say if there's anything I'm glad about, it's that your generation..." she turned towards Ruby. "Your generation is the one that's inheriting the world, and you look more up to the task than your predecessors."

Thinking on it more Ruby then smiled up to Maria. "Do you think you could teach me how to use my eyes?!" she asked.

Before Maria could answer, Ruby's scroll rang and she took her scroll out, and much to her own surprise, it was Jaune. "It's Jaune!"

"Jaune?" Weiss sat up herself now.

"Wouldn't that mean?-" before Blake could finish the thought Bumblebee stopped atop a hill, overlooking the walled City of Argus.

"We're here." Yang smiled to them. "Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Argus." she stated, trying to mimic a train conductor voice which just made Ruby laugh slightly as Yang started downhill slowly.

* * *

Upon arrival in Argus, Yang rolled Bumblebee into a storage locker just out by the gate of the city, using the code 4-5-8 to lock it before walking over towards everyone just as the three members of JNR approached through a crowd, looking around for them.

"Hey guys over here!" Ruby called out.

Nora spotted them and more importantly, Oscar. "CUTE BOY OZ!" Nora tackled Oscar to the ground before he could react.

"Are you guys okay?" Ren asked as Yang pulled him into a hug before moving over to give Weiss, then Blake hugs. Jaune followed in suit doing the same.

"We were so worried." Jaune admitted.

"Well it's been quite the trip." Yang shook her head.

"Understatement of the century." Weiss rolled her eyes.

"Who's the Granny?" Nora asked as Maria just scoffed, leaning on her cane.

"We're glad you all made it here just fine." Blake affirmed, as she noticed something behind JNR that set her off slightly. It was the hooded figure on the train before, he was standing in the middle of the crowd staring to her before a person walked in front of him and he vanished again.

"You, okay Blake?" Jaune asked.

"Oh!" Blake shook her head. "Y-Yeah. It's just been a long trip for me. I keep seeing things that aren't there."

"Well, enough of moping around! We should show you around! This place is so cool!" Nora exclaimed.

As Nora led everyone around Jaune stopped for a moment and Ruby put a hand on his shoulder. "I promised we'd make it here, didn't I?"

"You're right. Thanks for keeping it, Ruby."

Looking away, Ruby took a deep breath. "There's also some big information I need to share with you guys. Fate of the world important. We'll talk about it later, okay?"

Jaune nodded in agreement. "Of course. When you're ready to tell us."

* * *

The group was now riding through town on a trolley. "Whoa..." Ruby looked around in awe of how large the city was.

"I had no idea Argus was this expansive." Weiss remarked.

"It's actually one of the largest non-capital cities in all of Remnant." Ren explained.

Shaking her head Yang watched as they passed a movie theater and a shopping district. "I find that a little hard to believe. I mean one doesn't just simply settle this far away from a Kingdom without major issues."

"Well they weren't alone. They actually received help from Mantle." Jaune explained. "Early settlements were doomed till they received help from Mantle in exchange for goods that Solitas didn't have."

"It was a joint effort between two Kingdoms." Ren added. "While Argus is still Mistral's territory, it does receive protection from the Atlesian Military, to ensure trade goes smoothly between the two Kingdoms."

"Well, that was till recently." Nora interjected as the trolley came to a screeching halt that made Blake's ears fold against her head.

"You mean... The dust embargo." Weiss frowned, knowing exactly why trade had stopped between Kingdoms.

The two groups exited the trolley car now and Jaune was looking around.

"So we're gonna need a ship to fly us out of here and to Atlas." Blake crossed her arms.

Glancing over to Jaune quizzically, Oscar cleared his throat. "So where have you guys been staying? Are you looking for someone?" he asked.

Jaune's eyes darted from left to right. "About that..."

"There you are!" a female voice from the distance called out as Jaune turned over towards the woman that was holding an infant in her arms.

"Hey Saph..." Jaune scratched the back of his head.

"Wait... Is that?!" Yang seemed to be putting the pieces together.

Looking to the pair and then back at Jaune, Ruby seemed excited. "OH MY GOSH!"

* * *

Gathered in a living room of a fairly modest sized house, the groups were seated all around. Yang and Weiss were notably playing with the toddler, keeping him entertained by flying a toy airship around him that he tried to reach for.

"I can't believe we get to meet one of your sisters!" Ruby exclaimed, noticing the picture on the wall of all the Arc siblings with poor Jaune stuck right in the middle holding up a sign pleading for help. "I have like a thousand questions to ask!"

"Well if we have the time I'd be glad to give you the run down of all of Jaune's embarrassing secrets." Nora snickered.

"Nora, please." Jaune buried his face in his hands.

"What? I love telling stories about my adorable baby brother!" Saphron insisted as she pinched her little brother's cheek.

Flailing his arms around, Jaune got her to stop. "Saph please! You're embarrassing me in front of my friends!" he lamented. "Besides, I'm not a baby anymore! if you wanna talk about a baby, you got one right there!" he pointed to the toddler in the room.

The boy pouted and crossed his arms before Weiss and Yang immediately kept showering him with affection.

"You're so cute, yes you are!" Yang fawned.

"He's so adorable!" Weiss ruffled the hair on his little head.

"So you're the only Arc in Argus, Saphron?" Blake asked.

"Oh yep, I moved out the first chance I could! Believe me when I say, we did have some crowded living conditions." Saphron chuckled.

"Oh, I can relate to that." the faunus chuckled slightly.

"Jaune moved too! I guess he really wanted to be like his big sis! Although our Mom still doesn't exactly approve of how he got into Beacon. Especially when she found out his transcripts were faked." Saphron stated, looking to Jaune. "You best be glad Mom didn't sell you out to give you a piece of her mind!"

"W-Well I am uh grateful for that." Jaune scratched the back of his head.

"Besides, you totally just wanted to be like your cooler older sis!" Saphron insisted as Jaune pouted again before the two started play fighting slightly, pinching at each other's cheeks before the door opened and a woman holding two large bags of groceries walked in.

"Everyone, this is my wife, Terra Cotta!" Saphron introduced.

"Hey! How's it going?! Hi! Pleasure to meet you!" everyone greeted her in unison.

Terra chuckled a little at this crowd. "Well, it seems your brother gathered quite the crowd here. You really weren't kidding. Mind if I get some help?" she asked as the bags were starting to feel too heavy for her.

Immediately the members of JNR and RWBY rushed to her aid.

* * *

As Team JNR and Oscar were preparing food for everyone everyone else was sat around the living room.

"So you're fine with housing us for the time?" Weiss asked.

"Of course!" Saphron assured. "We're happy to help Huntsmen and Huntresses! And especially my brother's friends!"

"You all do so much to help us by keeping our kingdoms and borders safe. It's the least we could do to help." Terra pat her chest confidently as the toddler in her arms jumped up a little and she held him firmly. "Though I do have to ask." she glanced over at Qrow. "Why an elite huntsmen such as yourself is hanging around a bunch of kids? Is that even safe or legal for that matter?"

Ruby elbow bumped Qrow who was dozing off slightly and he sprang awake. "Oh um yeah! It's perfectly fine!" he assured her. "This is more like an extended training mission. I mean I was a professor at one point, and believe me when I say, they make these kids way better than they made hunters at my age, and I would know since I went to the same school as them."

His attention was slightly diverted by the smell of fresh sandwiches. "I mean they're not better than me... But uh-" he was cut short when Ruby shoved a sandwich in his face.

"Eat now, Talk later!" Ruby immediately stuffed her face while everyone else began eating. Nora had two sandwiches in hand, Blake was just eating one slowly, Yang stacked two on top of each other and Weiss was neatly eating it with a napkin on her lap.

Saphron and Terra smiled to one another as they were starting to relax a little bit before suddenly Terra's scroll rang. "Oh, I'll get this." she handed the toddler off to Saphron while she took the call.

"What's going on?" Blake asked.

"Oh it's just Terra's work. She helps out at the Relay tower, ya know, keeping communications up and all. But it's also where the military's radar system is kept." glancing down at the child Saphron kissed his forehead. "Adrian, Guess who's getting falsely blamed for stuff not working again?!"

Poking her head into the room Terra interjected. "It's me."

Tickling Adrian's face Saphron turned towards Ruby. "So what's your plan for tomorrow?"

Ruby downed her sandwich and took a sip from a bottle of water. "Oh well um. We were hoping to get to Atlas. We'll probably start at the military base." she explained.

Ren and Nora just glanced to each other before looking back over to Jaune.

"Um about that..." Nora chuckled nervously.

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad!" Yang waved her arm in disbelief.

Almost immediately upon arriving at the gate of the Atlesian base in Argus, the gate slammed shut on Team RWBY. "Oh..." remarked the team's leader.

* * *

**Commentary**: Now we're in Argus! Adam's presence is already there and imposing... The Maria flashback went slightly differently, namely Tock wasn't even bothering to dodge any attacks, why would she? These next couple of chapters will be some slow burning ones before we get to the real good part.


	8. Chapter 8: Road Block

Peering into the base The team looked around before two guards wearing rather old fashioned Atlas Military Uniform approached. "NONE SHALL ENTER THE GATES OF OUR BASE!"

"We need to get to Atlas!" Ruby explained.

"The Atlas-Mistral border is closed!" the soldier explained. "Good day!"

"NONE SHALL ENTER!" The other soldier responded as Team RWBY stepped back.

"Look, I'm friends with General Ironwood." Qrow reasoned.

"General Ironwood!" the two guards repeated.

"We want to get Weiss Schnee back home to Atlas." he explained as Weiss stepped forward.

"Uh... Hey?" Weiss waved.

"Allow us to get our commanding officer for you then!" the two soldiers walked off making a weird 'hup' noise.

"Those guys were very... Um..." Blake didn't wanna be rude with her words.

"Weird?" Ruby finished.

"Yeah." Oscar agreed.

"Absolutely." Yang shook her head.

"Are they alright?" Weiss added.

Maria on the other hand seemed very troubled by this.

"What's wrong Maria?" Oscar asked her.

"I may know this commanding officer." she explained.

"Well that's good, right?! Maybe she could help us through if you're friends!" Ruby reasoned.

Maria shook her head. "I wouldn't say we're friends."

"Acquaintances?" Weiss asked now.

"No." Maria refuted.

"Colleagues?" Blake stated.

"Warmer." Maria nodded.

"Uh... Enemies?" Yang finished this line of questions.

"That's the one!" Maria pointed as everyone just simultaneously groaned, realizing what this likely would mean for them. "I come through here about once every 10 years to get my eyes fixed up in Atlas. I tell ya, you bring Cashews onto one flight! And now you're on the additional screening list for life!"

Qrow took a swig from his flask and groaned. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Hey, hey! There might be some silver lining." Maria assured. "Maybe she's dead!"

The gates of the base suddenly opened and the two guards from before stood in front of the gate. "Introducing!" the first guard spoke.

"Special Operative..." the second one added.

"CAROLINE CORDOVIN!" they said in unison as they stepped aside and the short elderly Atlas operative in charge of the base approached. She immediately glared in Maria's direction. "Witch."

"She-Devil." Maria spat back at her.

Cordovin chuckled as she saw the group before her. "I see you've chosen larger contraband to smuggle in this time, well I hate to tell you it will not pass through this base!"

if Maria could roll her eyes, she had rolled them by now. "I know they say time changes people Caroline, but you still got that stick stuck way up your-" before she could rant on more, Ruby interjected.

"Um Hello Miss Cordovin!" Ruby bowed her head. "I'm Ruby Rose and I was wondering if you'd be able to-"

"The answer is no. I already know what your other pathetic little friends were asking." she spotted JNR in the distance. "I thought I told you not to come back!"

"Who are you calling little?!" Nora yelled out at her while Ren and Jaune were holding her back. "You're the little one! WE WONT REST TILL WE GET THROUGH!"

Ren just sighed and tried to be as amicable as possible. "It's nice to see you again Miss!"

Caroline Cordovin scoffed at the audacity of the children around her. "You civilians have the audacity to make a demand of us?! Our mission here is to ensure the safety of Argus and it's people! Yet you all act like ungrateful ingrates that think they can make demands from us!"

"We're just asking for hel-" before Ruby could continue she was again interrupted.

"This base, that tower, the entire safety of this city are all gifts from the glorious Kingdom of Atlas! It is my duty to uphold them! As only I have the Wit and Tenacity for this task!" Cordovin proclaimed.

"Such Wit!" a guard bowed his head.

"SUCH TENACITY!" the other guard bowed as well.

"Or maybe Atlas just wanted you as far away from their borders as possible." Maria snickered.

"You make a mockery of us! Like the rest of these fools in this city! We're trying to protect you! Yet all you want to do is put knives to our throats because of something that didn't happen within our Kingdom!" Cordovin complained.

"Miss Cordovin." Ruby interjected again. "We know what really happened. We were at Beacon when it fell. We know for a fact Atlas didn't do it."

"Look..." Weiss stepped forward. "No one's happy about the Embargo or the borders being closed. You can understand how that makes everyone else, feel right?"

"Of course, but it's what General Ironwood deems is necessary for the safety of our people." Cordovin affirmed.

"General Ironwood is just concerned. That's why we need to get there to have a word with-"

"General Ironwood is not weak! Concerned?! You really think our Great General has time to feel concern or worry? No! He is fully competent and prepared all the time! He knew every other Kingdom would act like fools so responded for the situation!" the Special Operative confirmed. "If the other Kingdoms are ready to make Atlas their enemy, then so be it. Atlas will Prevail no matter what!" she declared.

"Atlas will prevail!" her soldiers repeated.

"Do you guys really need to do that?" Yang furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm getting second hand embarrassment here."

Taking in a deep breath of air, Cordovin turned towards Weiss. "If Miss Schnee has come to her senses and wishes to return to her family, than we will escort her home. But we will NOT be taking her friends of incredibly questionable character." she glanced at Blake when she said that. "And especially not friends of hers responsible for acts of Brutality." she glared in Yang's direction.

"I was framed for that!" Yang argued before Ruby put a hand on her shoulder.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Weiss was angry. "My friends are going with me, or I'm not going at all!" she gripped Myrtenaster tightly.

"Well then I guess we're done here." Caroline Cordovin turned back towards her base as the gate slammed shut and the guard stood in front of the base.

Weiss felt so tempted to act on an impulse and launch an attack her way, but Blake stopped her. "It's not worth it, Weiss."

"Your base... Looks like... A BIG DUMB BOOT!" Nora yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Nice one, Nora." Jaune furrowed his eyebrows as she stomped off.

"If you guys... Want me to. I can-" before Weiss could continue this thought Ruby shut her down.

"No. Weiss, Team RWBY won't leave your side, not even once." she assured. "We'll find a way to get there, together."

Smiling back to Ruby, Weiss felt reassured now as Qrow started to walk off with his hands in his pocket.

"So what's the plan now?" Yang questioned.

"The plan? That just got shut in our face. I'm going for a drink. You kids go do whatever the hell you want." Qrow grunted while storming off.

"C'mon Uncle Qrow! Don't give up!" Ruby insisted. "We can still find a way..." Qrow was gone into the distance now as she sighed in defeat.

"What's gotten him down?" Jaune asked curiously.

"You're not gonna like it when I tell you." Ruby admitted.

"I mean can't Ozpin help us? He's like the guy who always has a plan!" Nora reasoned.

"About that..." Oscar scratched the back of his head.

* * *

Pacing around the living room of the Cotta-Arc house, Jaune was at a loss for words.

"Jaune... I know this is a lot to take in-" Ruby tried to reason.

"Everything we did was for nothing!" Jaune spat back at her.

"That isn't true, Jaune." Blake tried to argue back.

"Really? It sounds like it is true." Nora crossed her arms, turning away from everyone.

Ren was lost in thought before he spoke up. "If Salem can't be killed what can we do? How can we win?"

Furrowing his eyebrows, Jaune finally stopped in the middle of the room. "Real great plan guys! Pyrrha died for nothing!"

Oscar then took a deep breath and tried to mediate. "Look, this is all terrible news, but we're all trying to accomplish the same goal here, aren't we? We still want to save the world."

"How do we know?" Jaune asked.

"Know what?"

Oscar was immediately grabbed by the collar. "How do we know you're not just pretending to be Oscar?!"

"Hey calm down, Jaune!" Weiss stood up from where she was sat. "Oscar didn't know either, how do you think we knew how to use the relic?"

"How are you sure Ozpin hasn't already assimilated Oscar?!" Jaune asked. "How can you trust if that's even Oscar you're talking to?!"

"Jaune!" Yang pulled him away from Oscar after he slammed him into a wall.

Gritting his teeth, a tear fell down Jaune's face. "I just...The fact that Liar is still here with us, bothers me and the fact that. The fact that Pyrrha died for nothing!" he stormed off upstairs.

"Jaune.." Ruby looked down and then back to Ren and Nora. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"I don't know." Nora shrugged angrily while storming off up the stairs as well.

"We need some time." Ren shook his head and followed his teammates.

The four members of RWBY all looked distraught, leaving and going their separate ways, Weiss sat on the couch while Yang walked out the front. "I'm going for a walk."

"C-Can I join you?!" Blake asked.

"Sure." Yang shrugged her shoulders as the two left. As they started down the street, the same hooded figure from before watched them from the rooftops, eventually jumping down when they got far from his line of sight.

Ruby looked towards Weiss who crossed her arms. "Do something else, I could use a little rest." she closed her eyes as Ruby walked to the back door, opening it.

* * *

In a room only lit by candles and the stars outside of the Evernight Castle Mercury was practicing his form. He threw out kick after kick, stopping and instinctively kicking when he felt something approach from behind, only to stop his foot a mere inch from Emerald's face. Emerald did not flinch at all. "What do you want?" he asked her.

"I was just wondering Mercury." Emerald took a deep breath, looking away. "Why did you go with us back when you did? I mean with Cinder and I. What did you have to gain?"

Mercury lowered his foot and crossed his arms. "Bit of a random question to hit me with there, Em. Although if I had to be honest. I went because I felt like it was my calling. You know, my upbringing as an Assassin and all."

"You didn't have to go with us though. You could have easily become a huntsman or something." Emerald argued. "So why?"

"I mean, honestly? The huntsman job sounds like it had good pay, but it just wasn't for me." Mercury affirmed. "You joined because you thought Cinder cared about you."

Gripping her fist in anger, Emerald stormed forward. "She does care!"

"No. She really doesn't" Mercury shook his head. "Cinder only cares about one thing. Cinder. You think she's going to be the family you never had?! Don't make me laugh."

This fully set Emerald off as she took her sickles out and swung at Mercury, who blocked one of them with a boot. "How would you know?! No one ever cared about you before Cinder showed up!" she kept slashing out at him.

Mercury deflected and parried each slash of Thief's Respite before finally knocking one from her hand. "I know because I've dealt with someone like Cinder all my life!"

Emerald raised her other sickle to block Mercury's coming kick that shoved her back a few feet.

"My Father was a terrible excuse of a person! I constantly wanted his approval when I was younger but all he did was keep taking things from me. I could walk? I guess that means I'm ready to learn how to kill? I unlocked my semblance? Oh, well that didn't matter because he used his semblance to take mine away!" Mercury scoffed. "I was told my semblance was a weakness, a crutch for me to lean on and that I'd get it back when I earned it back. I killed him, thinking maybe I would get it back. I never did." he looked away from Emerald.

"Wake up and have a look outside. Look where we are. If you're not comfortable with it, go. I know where I'm meant to be." Mercury stated.

"Oh, look at the big tough man!" Tyrian entered the room and approached the two, a fully mechanical new stinger swung around. "He thinks he's a big shot assassin!" he laughed.

"Back off, Freak." Mercury attempted to kick him, but Tyrian kicked him back and then held him to the ground by his neck with his stinger held inches from Mercury's face.

Watts pointed to his Watch and Tyrian sighed, letting go.

"Oh do pardon me. I just came here to inform you Watts and I are departing to Atlas. We have to help prepare things there for our grace. For if she is to succeed then General Ironwood must not come to his senses and call upon aid from Vacuo. All could be lost to us then!" he explained.

"Well get going then." Emerald scoffed, turning away.

"Now now." Tyrian put a hand on Emerald's shoulder. "Here's a word of advice from me, a secret if you would."

"What is it?" Emerald picked her weapon up, really just wanting any excuse to not be near Tyrian.

"Your question is all wrong. What do you have to gain? No no, Children... If you don't love what you're doing here, then you're in the wrong field." Tyrian explained.

"So you're saying we should leave?" Emerald asked.

"Oh no! No no no no no! You can't do that. Not if you're in this deep!" Tyrian laughed.

"Then what?" Mercury asked.

"Ah well-"

"Tyrian." Watts called out calmly.

"It seems like it is my time to go." he bowed. "Do me a favor kids, and do what makes you happy. Please? I'm really begging you here." Tyrian cackled as he and Watts exited the room, venom dripping from Tyrian's new stinger as the door shut.

"What a freak..." Mercury remarked.

* * *

In the back yard of the Cotta-Arc house Ruby groaned in annoyance as Qrow wasn't answering any of her calls. "Pick up!" she yelled angrily.

"You know, I came back out here to avoid yelling." Maria remarked.

"Sorry. I just feel like I'm letting everyone down." Ruby confessed. "We need to get to Atlas but we don't even have a plan."

Shaking her head Maria looked to her now. "Come, sit. Why don't we talk about those eyes of yours."

"R-Really?!" Ruby seemed eager. "I wanna learn how to laser blast things with my eyes!" That enthusiasm was immediately silenced when Maria smacked her over the head with her cane. "Ow..."

"Firstly don't think of it like that, there's a lot more to your silver eyes than just shooting laser beams at Monsters." Maria shook her head. "Believe me, my father told me the same thing himself."

"Your father had silver eyes too?" Ruby asked.

"Oh yes." Maria chuckled. "I still would argue to you that your most valuable tools in a regular fight are your weapon and semblance. Take my semblance for instance. It was rather useful to me." She threw an orange up into the air and held her hand out slightly in front of her, catching it. "Preflexes!"

"Pre... Flexes?" Ruby seemed utterly confused.

"It's what I call it. I could sense things right before they happen. Although that doesn't always equate to me being able to stop them or for some other factor to get in the way, namely my own mind." she sighed a bit, thinking back again. "Ruby, think to all the times where you've used them and recall what you were feeling."

She crossed her arms now pondering deeply in thought. "I was scared... Stressed. Is it emotional? Kinda like how a semblance works?"

"More focused than that." Maria stated. "Think more specifically about what you wanted in those times."

Ruby focused again for another moment. "I wanted to protect my friends."

"Precisely, it's that desire to preserve life that powers the light inside of you. Make no mistake, that IS light that's powering your eyes. Preservation is a part of creation, and by extent an enemy of destruction. While the Grimm were the creation of the brother of Darkness. Us, our kind were a creation of his brother."

"How do you know that?" Ruby tilted her head.

"I always knew how to use the light, but never really why it only would work on Grimm. But when Jinn showed us her vision that's when I came to that realization." Maria explained.

"Oh! Of course! When he turned into a dragon I did see his eyes, they were silver! Where can we start?!" Ruby seemed very eager.

"Not here." Maria sat up in her chair. "The light will only work in the presence of Grimm. In order to test your powers out, you'd need a trial by fire directly in the face of a Grimm. What you can do for now though, is focus your mind on creating that ideal state where your eyes can be used quickly if need be. Don't think of it as a weapon meant to destroy, think of it as a tool meant to protect."

Ruby pouted now, remembering something else. "That doesn't seem completely accurate. What you told me about my eyes only working around Grimm. Back at Haven when I was fighting Cinder and her allies she somehow got affected by them. The others all told me that she was hurt by my eyes."

Maria raised a mechanical eye up in confusion at this. "Perhaps there might be something more to this Cinder than you think. Maybe something you couldn't quite see."

It was this moment the door would open and Oscar leaned out the door. "Hey guys. I'm gonna go into town for a while." he looked down. "If anyone needs anything you can ask me."

Ruby stood up and smiled to Oscar. "We don't hate you Oscar. We don't even hate Ozpin." she assured.

"Really? It certainly feels that way, even if that's not what you feel, the others already clearly conveyed to me how they feel." Oscar shook his head. "Look, I won't be out too late." he made his way out the front door.

"Oscar..." Ruby couldn't help but feel bad.

* * *

**Commentary**: So Cordovin's just as insane as she is in the original, go figure. Emerald and Mercury's argument does result in a bit more of an actual fight and Ruby finally has a little bit of a talk with Maria with regard to her eyes and what she can do to use them. Also Oscar doesn't stupidly go missing, he just leaves for a while.


	9. Chapter 9: Lost

The streets of Argus were bustling with activity as Blake and Yang were taking a calm walk down the street to catch their bearings after all that had recently happened.

"Yang?" Blake spoke up. "I just I wanted to apologize again for what I said back in the barn."

Rolling her eyes Yang just turned towards her. "Look, it was probably just those things in the water way making you think the wrong way."

"But I don't think it was." Blake argued. "I was just trying to tell you I'd have your back no matter what and that I wouldn't run away from my problems anymore."

Yang stopped in her tracks then. "You know what? No. Just no." she furrowed her eyebrows. "You understand, I have every right to be mad with you, right?"

Silently nodding in agreement, Blake's cat ears flattened against her head as well.

"Tell me that you understand that me and the others giving you a second chance is because we want to believe in you, Blake. Believe that you want things to be right by you." Yang's eyes narrowed as Blake hesitantly took a step back. For some reason Blake felt a familiar chill in the alleyway they were standing not too far from that she could easily just run down and away from this conversation.

"I understand." Blake said, affirming her stance by stepping forward.

"Say it like you feel it!" Yang's eyes turned red and her hand started shaking again.

"I UNDERSTAND!" Blake bowed her head, feeling ashamed and expecting to be struck by Yang in anger, but instead didn't receive that treatment as Yang merely held a hand out to her, it was her prosthetic hand. "Yang?"

"If I hated you Blake. In any manner. Would I have given up this arm to save your life from Adam?" she asked.

"N-No." Blake took hold of the hand now with both of her own. "But it's still my fault you were in that situation to begin with."

Yang shook her head. "It's that kind of thinking that you need to stop Blake. Didn't you learn anything? Think for yourself for once, and not for others."

"It was... Adam's fault." Blake affirmed aloud and then in her own mind, for some reason it felt all the more clearer for her to affirm it in her head than aloud. "Adam was the one who attacked me and cut your arm off when you did what you felt was right and tried to save me."

"That's more like it." Yang nodded to her. "And if what you said is right about him, then he won't show his face again any time soon and we can move on now from this and be partners again, right?"

"I'd love for that more than anything." the faunus stated. "I just want things to be like how they were at Beacon... Minus all the stuff around the start."

"Also probably the stuff around the end." Yang added with a slight chuckle.

Scratching the back of her head Blake smiled a little to her. "Yeah."

The pair walked off further into Argus, grimacing in annoyance, the hooded figure started climbing up another roof to keep watch of them.

* * *

Walking down another street, JNR along with Saphron were making their way towards Argus's central park.

"So what's this thing you wanted to show us?" Ren asked curiously.

"Oh trust me when I say, it's something your team will greatly appreciate." Saphron smiled.

"I don't quite understand." Jaune shook his head as Saphron put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"You'll understand when you get there, trust me, it's by the closest entrance we're approaching." she explained to her younger brother. "You've grown up so much Jaune. I'm proud of you."

"Saaaaph!" Jaune whined as she was embarrassing him again while Nora snickered slightly.

"I really do mean it Jaun-" before she could continue, her scroll rang and she answered. "Hello? Oh?! Oh. I'll be there right away."

"What is it?" Nora asked. "Something big or bad?"

"No. I just have to get Adrian from Daycare right now. Terra's being held up slightly longer at work than we thought. You guys go on ahead." she assured while walking away now. "I'll meet you back at home!"

Sighing a bit in defeat, Jaune walked ahead of his teammates towards the park before coming to a stop by a bench. "Wanna take a break?"

"Sure." Ren nodded before him and Nora sat beside Jaune.

Glancing from side to side, Jaune looked down at the ground. "Maybe I did blow up on him too hard. I should apologize to Oscar once we get back home."

"Of course." Ren nodded.

"Oscar never meant us bad, heck I'm sure Ozpin never meant anything bad." Nora assured.

A maple leaf blew by in front of the three teammates. Jaune for whatever reason, felt compelled to stand up and follow it.

Ren and Nora followed in suit. "Jaune?" Nora asked as they followed him right into the park's entrance.

Jaune stopped and gasped at the sight before him as he continued into the park.

_Once,  
Like a dream  
You looked at me,  
And everything felt new..._

In the central square of the park was a large statue of Pyrrha Nikos with a small placard projected out in front of it with the text _**"In Memory of Pyrrha Nikos, one of the many brave students who gave their lives during the Battle of Beacon"**_, another placard by the park entrance named this section of the park the Pyrrha Nikos Memorial Park.

_Some people fall in love for life,  
Others never get it right,  
Love's fickle when it grows,_

Jaune looked up to the statue of his partner and bowed his head. Ren and Nora looked up to it and did the same, putting their hands on Jaune's shoulders to show their support.

_One thing that I know for sure,  
Longer than our lives endure,  
You're my **Forever Fall**..._

A woman who was in the park knelt next to the statue, placing flowers down next to it before she looked to the group. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she asked in a voice that reminded the group all too much of their lost friend.

"It is. I just have to wonder... Why here of all places?" Jaune asked.

"Well, she trained here, in Sanctum Academy that is. Everyone was crushed when she chose Beacon Academy over Haven." the woman explained.

"Yeah... I know a few of those people." Jaune remarked sadly.

"No one wanted to see her go. But, she made her mind up. I'm glad that in the very least, she had such amazing friends."

Jaune wiped a tear from his face. "With all due respect... She should be standing here, not me."

"Jaune..." Nora put a hand on his shoulder before the woman spoke up again.

"She is." The woman stated. "She knew that she had a responsibility to try and she did. I don't think she at any moment regretted the choice she made. There wasn't really a choice to be made because that's what a huntress would have done. She wanted nothing more than to be a huntress."

"Pyrrha, never got to graduate, but she was a real huntress." Jaune affirmed.

"She acted the way a real Huntress would, she saw the odds and despite them made that choice." Ren nodded.

"Pyrrha always knew what was the best choice to make and I'm sure in her mind she saw that her choice was the best one." Nora grinned a bit.

Wiping a tear from her face, the woman smiled. "Thank you."

The three members of Team JNPR glanced up at the statue again with hopeful smiles on their faces before looking towards where the woman was, only to find she was gone now.

"Guys, I'm sorry I haven't been the best leader. I've not even been that good a friend-"

"No." Nora shook her head and hugged him.

"This has to stop Jaune. I understand you blame yourself and are upset, but so are we. We care about you just as much Jaune. You're our friend too." Ren stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"We love you, just like you loved Pyrrha and she loved you." Nora stated. "Please, just promise us you won't get yourself killed, okay?"

"I... I promise." Jaune smiled to his friends. "Pyrrha might not be with us anymore. But I think, I think we should treat each day like she is still with us, because in a sense she always will be."

"Always." Ren affirmed.

"Always." Nora took hold of Jaune's hand. "We should get going now. It is starting to get a bit late."

Before he was dragged off by Nora, Jaune smiled up towards Pyrrha's statue. "Thank you." an airship flew past it as the trio exited the park only to see Oscar browsing around a thrift store for clothes, grumbling as he didn't see a coat he quite liked.

"Oscar?" Jaune was a little surprised.

"Wanna help him out?" Nora asked.

"That would be a decent ice breaker for an apology." Ren added as the three then approached the shop.

* * *

Closing the door behind her, Ruby entered the living room of the Cotta-Arc house and sat down next to Weiss. "We need to think of some way to get to Atlas, Weiss."

"How can we though?" Weiss asked, as she sat herself up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Well we need some kind of ship and we need clearance to even dock in or around Atlas." Ruby explained. "I just wish I could think of something." she glanced down towards Adrian's toys that were strewn about the living room carpet.

"Ruby, maybe we could just settle on Vacuo instead." Weiss suggested. "They have a vault there too, don't they?"

"They do, but Do you really think there's any place safer for a relic than Atlas?" Ruby pointed out. "I think Ozpin had the right idea with us going to Atlas to secure the relic. Even if he kept stuff from us. His mind still had a very clear idea."

Weiss just rested a hand under her chin and sighed. "Maybe I'm just scared to go back there."

Resting a hand on her lap, Ruby smiled to Weiss. "It's like I said before, we won't leave your side for a second. We promise."

"Well that still doesn't help the fact that I'm all out of ideas." Weiss shook her head as Ruby then glanced towards Adrian's airship toy and picked it up, looking at it. "What? You wanna play with that?" she joked.

"No... I think I might just have an idea-" before Ruby could finish pondering the door opened with Blake and Yang having arrived back with some food.

"Who's hungry?!" Yang grinned.

"Did someone say Hungry?!" Nora exclaimed as she stepped inside with her teammates.

"Uh, Nora you messed up our dramatic cue." Ren pointed out, leaning in through the door.

"Oh?! Sorry, Sorry!" Nora stepped back outside before stepping inside again. "Ahem, presenting, with his new really cool outfit... Oscar Pine!" she pointed out as Oscar stepped in, wearing a green Trenchcoat now and smiling.

"I figure, Atlas is probably a very cold place." he reasoned. "So why not get something to prepare me for that?"

"He does have a point, Blake." Yang glanced over to what Blake was wearing.

"W-Well we can worry about that once we get there."

With that the team started enjoying the meal Blake and Yang had bought for everyone.

"So i was thinking guys." Ruby began. "What if we just... Took an airship." she suggested.

"You know, it's funny you mention that, Ruby." Jaune confessed. "I was about to suggest the same idea."

"Wonder what inspired that?" Nora asked.

"You were there." Jaune shrugged his shoulders.

"I was joking! He knows I was joking, right?" Nora asked as Ren just facepalmed.

"So how about it?" Ruby asked.

"You do know if we're caught we're likely gonna be put away for life, right?" Weiss pointed out as Saphron and Terra stepped downstairs.

Terra seemed slightly appalled by what she heard from upstairs. "You want to steal an Atlesian Airship?!"

"Just a small one!" Jaune reasoned. "Look, we really need to get to Atlas. It's important we get there and get to General Ironwood."

Putting a hand on Terra's shoulder reassuringly Saphron smiled to her brother. "How can we help?"

"Well, we'll need a distraction." Yang brought up.

"You'll also need to shut off the Military's radar system." Terra interjected. "They WILL notice a ship going missing."

Stepping forward confidently, Blake raised a hand up "I can do it. I've had experience shutting off Atlas tech before."

"You what?" Terra gave her a look of disbelief.

"Ex-White Fang." Blake stated which just made Terra shrug her shoulders.

Storming downstairs, Qrow brought himself into this conversation. "No, we're not doing this. We're not doing this because it's stupid and you'll all fail. It's too dangerous. I won't allow you kids to waste your time and get yourself into trouble like this."

"Uncle Qrow-" Ruby tried to argue.

"No!" He glared at her.

"No to you!" Ruby shoved him back slightly now. "Do you really think we came all this way just to give up like you have?! Like it or not, we're going to Atlas and if we have to steal an airship to do it, then we will." she insisted. "Now, you can either sit here wallowing in your own self pity like a selfish drunk, or you can do things our way." she glared at him before turning back towards the others and smiling to them. "Are you guys in?" she held a hand out

"We're always in, Ruby." Yang smiled to her sister, putting her hand on top of Ruby's.

"Well, it could be fun I suppose." Weiss shrugged her shoulders, doing the same.

"We'll follow your lead." Blake nodded.

"You always got JNPR, Ruby." Jaune affirmed as Ren and Nora joined in.

"Let's steal a ship!" Nora exclaimed.

"Not so loud, Nora." Ren groaned in annoyance.

"Ah, what the hell." Qrow put his hand over them.

Maria smirked as she put her plate down and added herself in. "A chance to annoy Cordovin?! You had me at that!" she laughed like the demented old woman she was.

"Great, now then let's go into more detail." Ruby grinned as the group huddled up to make their plan.

* * *

**Commentary**: So this chapter's different than the original one, Blake and Yang get another scene here where their resolve solidifies more. All of JNR encounters the mysterious woman and Ruby and Jaune both end up sort of with the same idea of stealing a ship. But before we get to that stuff we first need to look into that hooded man that's been following Blake around... Gee, I wonder who that is?


	10. Chapter 10: Festering Hatred

All was beneath him, the hooded man watched the busy streets of Argus from his vantage point on a roof. The front half of the Argus Limited with all it's passengers had arrived in the city, but the back half of the train had separated and with it, the target this man was seeking out.

He was aware of one distinct fact though, that the three members of Team JNPR that were in the city, were closely associated with them, that it was likely they would eventually lead him to his target once they arrived and then he'd just need to wait till she was alone.

It wasn't always like this, he's never felt this scorned his entire life. He started out as any hopeful young faunus would. The memories and pain still rang through his mind clear as day.

"Did you get your work load in?!" asked a rather angry man.

"I-I'm sorry I couldn't risk getting hurt because the tunnel walls were-" the voice of a boy tried to argue back before he was struck.

"You animals can't do anything right!" the man yelled. "When I say dig, you dig! When I say stop, you stop! Ya got that?! If the wall will collapse on you, LET IT! Otherwise..." the sound of sizzling metal echoed. "Otherwise you'll all end up like Taurus here!"

"No... Please... NO! DONT DO THIS!" he pleaded as the sizzling got closer. "No, NOOOO!" he yelled out in agony as the sounds of burning metal echoed in Adam's mind.

Adam sat up slightly, holding his face in annoyance while gritting his teeth. "I'll kill them all once I've dealt with her..." he glared down at JNR while they were meeting with Saphron.

* * *

Several faunus struggled in the front of a dust processing plant, attempting to break the locks but found themselves unable to. "Dammit! The lock won't budge!"

"Need a hand?" Adam's voice asked as he walked over to the group, his Grimm mask was now worn over his face as he stepped towards the group.

"What's with the mask?" another faunus asked him as she adjusted the bandanna she wore over her face.

"They want to look at us like monsters don't they? Well if they want to look at us as monsters, then they'll see us as monsters. We won't let them oppress us any further!" Adam cleaved through the lock with Wilt in a single slash. "Now then, I think it's time we get what we deserve."

* * *

The next morning is when RWBY arrived in Argus and of course through the crowd stood Adam, watching Blake, but vanishing as soon as she spotted him. Cursing under his breath Adam decided he'd wait by the place where they were likely to be staying for the time and made his way over to the Cotta-Arc house, to wait on a nearby roof.

The sounds of cars in transit and the trolleys moving through the streets brought him back to the past again as he started to make his way over...

* * *

Gunshots rang out as the White Fang's convoy was under siege by a group of humans from a nearby village.

"Please! We're just trying to pass through!" Ghira Belladonna pleaded as he raised his hands up in surrender before a gunshot hit his arm and shattered his aura.

"Get through?! You're all just filthy animals!" the man that shot him had yelled. "The only way you're getting through is in a body bag!" he started to reload his gun.

Sienna Khan who was also with this convoy, glanced over to Adam, who seemed to be on the ready and nodded to him.

Adam sprung forward, landing in the direction of their attackers.

_Taunted and Tortured,  
Insulted and reviled,  
In Thrall to Human overlords,  
Since I was a child._

The first bandit rushed at Adam and clashed swords with him, staggering back while Adam's stance held firm before he then kicked the man in the chest, slamming him into a tree.

The next set of bandits started opening fire on Adam, but Adam caught all their bullets with his sword before slamming the first one to a tree with his sheathed weapon.

Adam boosted himself forward, a black and red after image of himself masking him and confusing the woman that was shooting at him. He then swept her legs out from under her and hit her with the handle of Wilt, knocking her into the air before jumping up off of her and into the tree line.

_Surrounded by Weaklings,  
Pathetic and oppressed,  
Satisfied to Gnaw on Scraps,  
Afraid to leave the nest. _

A sniper in the tree lines opened fire on Adam, and he blocked their first shot with Wilt while then leaping through the tree lines, slicing branches apart to drop on bandits below, trapping a few. He then finally came upon the sniper's location and sliced the branch he was on apart and he fell to the ground.

The sniper attempted to shoot Adam at point blank range but Adam blocked the shot and kicked him in the face disdainfully.

_Won't apologize for Retribution,  
Punishment is well deserved_

A knife wielding bandit rushed at Adam and tried to stab at him, only for Adam to hit him with Blush and then kick him several feet away.

_Subjugate, Humiliate  
And rob us of our pride,  
Watch them fall while I am glorified_

An axe was thrown Adam's way that he deflected with a slash followed by a single shot from Wilt that blasted through the shoulder of a bandit, making them scream out in pain as they ran to retreat while another bandit aided them.

_You'll see,  
I'm their hero,  
I'll be Lionized_

Several more shots were fired out in Adam's direction from all of the remaining bandits who turned their attention on him. Adam ran forward, deflecting every bullet before aiming his weapon forward.

_I have the Strength to do what's needed,  
Unify our people with no compromise,_

Adam shot Wilt out of Blush, the handle knocking a female bandit into a tree while he caught it and deflected another bullet with relative ease.

_Champion the truth until they recognize_

The last couple of bandits fired on him, but then the leader of the bandits, still with his revolver in hand decided he would make a break for the leader of the convoy, Ghira Belladonna. He yelled as he charged forward, shooting at the truck.

_Lead them to salvation and regain our lives_

Adam saw this and he didn't have time to reach the man before he got to Ghira, thinking fast, Adam unsheathed Wilt from Blush and a dark wave of red energy shot forward, slicing through the man before he could even react, killing him instantly.

Peering out from behind the car, Ghira finally stepped forward and was appalled by the sight before him. "W-What have you done?!"

The remaining bandits all started to retreat. "You're all monsters!" one of them yelled as Adam turned towards her which immediately made her pick up the pace.

"You didn't have to kill him-" Ghira was about to argue more before Sienna interrupted.

"Ghira! He saved your life! Be a little more grateful!" Sienna Khan crossed her arms.

Ghira groaned shaking his head as the other members who were around all cheered Adam on and a slight smirk twisted on Adam's face almost mirroring the smirk that Sienna was giving as Ghira started to walk off.

* * *

As the day would soon slip into the evening, Adam finally spotted her, Blake... His target stepping outside, but she wasn't alone. She was with Yang. Not that it would matter. But the crowded streets they were walking on would make it all the more of an issue for him.

He leaped after them as soon as they were nearly out of his line of sight.

* * *

Alarms blared out as Sienna Khan whipped an Atlesian Knight before kicking another one across the face and into a wall and smirking.

Sienna threw a fire dust knife out at a Knight that was about to shoot her. She sat still for a second as the knight started to try and shoot her but exploded before their chaingun arms could go off.

Ilia was with them on this mission and deflecting bullets fired their way with Lightning Lash's whip form. Adam charged forward brashly, slicing through all of the Atlesian Knights before sheathing Wilt while they all fell to piece behind him.

Adam fired Wilt out towards an Atlesian Knight that was readying to charge at him with bladed hands, knocking it back before he then ran up and jumped off of this Knight's shoulders and kicked Wilt into the head of an approaching Atlesian Knight.

Rushing past Adam now, Ilia whipped the sword out of the knight's head and back towards Adam's hand while she then cut through the body of two approaching knights and wrapped Lightning Lash around the other's neck and pulled. The Atlesian Knight's head was ripped clean from it's body when suddenly a smoke grenade dropped right behind Ilia and she barely had time to react as smoke filled the room.

Gunfire soon followed this smoke as several Mask wearing Schnee Dust Company security guards fired on the three faunus. Ilia found herself unable to handle the smoke.

Sienna's chain suddenly wrapped around the gun of a guard amid the smoke and ripped it from their arm while a shot from Blush blasted the mask off of another guard.

The guard started coughing and gagging, pulling back as the smoke was starting to dissipate while the other guards continued to open fire. Adam deflected each bullet with Wilt while Sienna fired out an ice knife from her weapon and it froze a gun to the hands of a guard.

Sienna tripped them with ease and a simple use of her chain while Adam sliced through another gun and through another security guard behind him. As he turned his attention to the last guard that Sienna had tripped, ready to stab them, Sienna called out to him.

"Adam! We need to move ahead if we're to get what we came here for!" she ordered while Adam sheathed his blade.

Ilia was walking behind the two and frowned slightly in the direction of the human Adam would have killed there, gripping the handle of her weapon tightly before picking up her pace.

* * *

Blake and Yang were starting to argue right in front of an alleyway where he was waiting. "Push her away." Adam chuckled to himself as he readied Wilt for the kill when suddenly Blake took a step forward.

"I understand." she proclaimed.

Internally cursing Adam had no choice but to just wait as the two reconciled their feelings more. "My Fault?" he muttered under his breath when Blake said that as their conversation soon continued into them departing from this easy spot.

"I'll get you alone..." he started to climb up a fire escape.

* * *

The doors to the Throne room at the White Fang Headquarters opened. "High Leader! We have a problem!" a frantic soldier exclaimed.

Adam raised a hand as to stop them from moving closer while he shifted in his chair slightly. "What is it?" he asked.

"It's the members in one of our strongholds. T-They haven't responded! They're supposed to be on standby for the attack!"

Straightening his posture slightly Adam groaned. "It doesn't matter, if they decided to run like cowards, let them. We'll hunt them down later. As for us? We have an operation to be prepared for tonight." he stood up.

The soldier bowed his head. "I hear the operation might be more complicated than planned as well. Hazel told me of a slight alteration to the plan." he held up the typed message on his scroll.

"What is it then?" Adam picked his sword up and took the scroll from the soldier's hands and read the message. "So, before they get the artifact they're going to have some fun killing humans."

"That is correct sir."

Adam chuckled slightly when he read the part about Hazel not being interested. "Tell Hazel I'll gladly take his place if he wants."

"B-But High lead-" before the soldier could argue any further Adam just shot a glare at him while handing his scroll back. "Y-Yes sir!" he exited the throne room as Adam smirked to himself.

"I think it's about time I get what I deserve."

* * *

Adam now leaned on one of the walls of the Cotta-Arc house, listening in as everyone expressed their concerns with the plan Ruby and Jaune were proposing, to steal an Atlesian Airship from the military base the next day.

"If they get to Atlas, Blake will slip out of my grasp." Adam grit his teeth in anger before Blake suddenly spoke up in the room.

"I can go to the Relay tower and disable it temporarily so the Military won't be able to track their stolen ship." Blake explained. "I'll just need a lift out there and back of course."

The others continued to speak, with Yang chiming in when Blake mentioned needing a lift.

That was all Adam needed to hear as he stood himself up and started in the direction of the Relay tower. He knew exactly where he could strike now.

It wouldn't be too long till he got to the tower, and there were still some guards that had to be cleared out so he could have his way with his prey. Unsheathing Wilt, Adam smiled from under his hood while approaching the tower.

* * *

**Commentary**: This was an interesting chapter to write. I essentially took elements and parts of Adam's character short and put them here, I also added some bits, taking liberties where I could and gave a little more backstory to Adam. But this chapter essentially is all of the Argus arc thus far, but from Adam's perspective. It also does set the stage for what's going to start next chapter.


	11. Chapter 11: Stealing from the Elderly

Removing her weapon's blade from the back of a Mistral Police officer, Neo smiled to herself, taking the helmet off of their body and putting it on while Cinder spoke to her in her ear piece.

"That's the general gist of it all, Neo. Salem wants the relics and she won't allow me to harm Ruby." Cinder's voice explained.

Neo smiled as she grabbed the set of airship keys off of another body and approached the ship.

"Now, while I am forbidden to harm Ruby, you on the other hand, don't work for Salem. She's all your's to kill." Cinder chuckled on the other end while Neo just smiled and started up the airship, clear enough for Cinder to hear.

"Excellent. Meet me at the location I just sent on to you." with that, Neo hung up and the airship exited the hangar...

* * *

The gates to the Argus military base opened for Weiss who was carrying a luggage along with Saphron and Adrian. "I'm ready to go." Weiss smiled as Cordovin approached.

"Excellent, glad to see you've come to your senses Miss Schnee." Cordovin gloated. "Your friends were all rapscallions that the likes of Atlas wouldn't tolerate." she then noticed Saphron and Adrian. "I'm sorry who are these two?"

"Excuse me, M-Miss Cordovin. I was just wondering if you'd be willing to give my son and I a tour of your wonderful base. Terra says he seems super interested in the cool ships he sees flying by." Saphron began. "My son is so young and impressionable right now that perhaps he might consider a military career in the future."

Cordovin chuckled to herself at this notion. "I will humor you gladly. After all the youth is our future!"

Weiss was walking with her luggage when one of Cordovin's Nubuck Guards tried to take her briefcase. "N-No I insist I'll take it!" Weiss argued as the bag was starting to rustle a bit.

"But Miss, we're here to help you out! We'll put it in the cargo hold!" The guard insisted. "This bag is really heavy, what do ya got in it?"

"N-Nothing!" Weiss lied. "Just um a lot of clothes.

"And an old lady." Maria's muffled voice mumbled as Weiss slightly nudged the bag, shutting her up.

"We insist though, Miss." the guard pressed.

"N-No I'd like to have it on me!" Weiss struggled and nodding to his mother who shot a slight smile to him Adrian then cried as loud as he possibly could irritating Cordovin.

The guards immediately went to calm Adrian as Weiss took her bag and boarded the ship with it in tow, waiting for the guards to come back.

As soon as they got back, Caroline Cordovin gave a salute and the ship took off towards Atlas. Weiss then took a deep breath and with Myrtenaster in hand, released Maria from the bag. "What?!" barely had time to react as Weiss started knocking them around with glyphs and Maria smacked their knees with her cane before finally, attached to a parachute, Weiss kicked them out of the airship and pulled the string.

The ship, now under Maria's control started to fly a longer route around, while Weiss spoke into an earpiece she was wearing this entire time. "Ship secured. Now all we need is for Blake to do her part."

"Yeah, just fly out of range for a bit, once the Relay tower is down in a few minutes you should be able to loop around no problem." Ruby assured from her end.

"Yep, This is where Blake and I are gonna come in." Yang stated confidently.

* * *

Speeding through the forests just west of Argus' northern shore, Blake and Yang rode towards the Relay tower.

"Just remember, the radar box isn't the same as the rest of the communication equipment around the tower. One false move and communications around Argus are going to be cut." Terra warned on her end of the call.

"Don't need to worry, I've disabled Atlas security tech plenty of times in the past." Blake assured as Terra didn't sound too amused while she slightly coughed in annoyance on her end of the call.

"This never happened." Terra stated in a deadpanned tone before Yang came to a stop on Bumblebee.

"Alright, this is as far as I can take you on Bumblebee without anyone getting alerted." Yang stated as Blake got off. "But you're sure you won't need any help?"

Blake just rolled her eyes at this. "Relax, if the guards here are anything like those guys at the base, I don't even think they'll notice me. Besides Stealth isn't exactly your... Strong suit." she admitted, awkwardly scratching the back of her head and looking away. "B-But you're fine otherwise! You're good!"

Shaking her head, Yang just chuckled a bit. "I get it, I'd agree with that. Just go." her expression softened a little.

Blake smiled back at Yang before she ran off ahead, hooking Gambol Shroud onto a tree to make a better approach.

"Alright, I'll be there in a few minutes to cut the radar off." she assured.

"Great! Things are all working out!" Jaune laughed on the other end of the call as the sound of Ren clearing his throat on the other end was heard. "I mean uh... Roger that!"

* * *

"So you're absolutely certain you can fly this?" Weiss asked.

"What part of best huntress of her generation, don't you understand?!" Maria laughed as she connected her eyes to the ship's controls to give herself better control of it. "I'm the Grimm reaper for cryin' out loud kid!"

"Didn't you say your eyes were in need of repair?" Weiss asked with a worried expression.

Maria just laughed in her face. "It'll be fine!"

The ship was starting to rear around to return back into Argus' airspace to pick up the others.

* * *

Ruby let out a sigh as she glanced over to her Uncle Qrow who still seemed mostly disinterested in things as he leaned on a tree.

"Don't worry, I'm convinced it'll work out." Oscar gave a reassuring smile to Ruby who nodded.

"You're right." Ruby nodded. "Alright, Blake how are things going with the tower?" she asked. "Blake? What's going on? Yang?!"

On Yang's end she looked towards the relay tower and didn't see any sign of movement. "I don't know." she shook her head.

* * *

"We have something on radar, Ma'am!" one of the base's guards stated.

"Who would be foolish enough to enter Argus airspace unannounced?!" Cordovin seemed rather outraged as she sat up in her chair.

"Us." another guard turned towards her.

"Children..." her eyes narrowed in anger. "But just in case Miss Schnee forgot something..."

* * *

"Manta 5-1 This is Argus Base, we see you've circled back, what's the status, Over?" the operator at the base asked through the radio on the ship.

"What's going on?" Weiss asked, looking to Maria. "They shouldn't be able to see us at all!"

"Someone clearly dropped the ball." Maria's eyes narrowed. "Don't worry though, I can handle this, I know plenty of Atlas Military jargon."

Maria picked up the radio and turned it on. "Argus Base, this is Manta 5-1, Feel free to ignore this, Thought we were going to scrub due to an FOD, but we're back up and Green all around, Over."

The operator responded rather quickly. "Manta 5-1, if you do not land back at Argus base immediately, you will be treated as hostile, over."

"I thought you said you knew their Jargon!" Weiss glared at Maria.

"Jargon was fine, but none of our pilots are elderly women." the operator pointed out as Weiss furrowed her eyebrows.

"Well they got me beat there! Why would you kids let me fly this thing?! I really am going senile!" Maria laughed as Cordovin suddenly picked up the radio.

"Calavera! I knew it! You and those obnoxious children are up to something! Land this ship back at base at once! Or face the full might of Atlas!" Cordovin bolstered in her threat only to hear the sound of crunching on the other end.

"W-What?!" Cordovin was confused as to what she was hearing now.

"You hear that Cordo?" Maria asked while chewing on Cashew nuts. "THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME NOT CARING!" she laughed as she flew the ship past the base and towards everyone's position.

* * *

"Cordovin's onto us!" Weiss yelled out through her end of the call. "And Maria's not helping!" she stated as the sound of Maria cackling was very clearly heard. "Why's the radar not down?!"

"We don't know, Blake isn't responding." Ruby shook her head.

"What do we do, guys?!" Oscar panicked.

The sound of a revving up motorcycle engine was heard from Yang's end of the call. "Keep the ship in tact, I'll go see what's going up."

Nora straightened her posture up and reached for her weapon. "Maybe we should go help Yang and Blake out, something might be going on."

Ren took his weapons off their holsters. "Nora might be right, we should go."

"Dammit all! Our fighters are gonna be scrambled and Cordo's gonna be on Maria and Weiss in a matter of seconds! This whole plan was a terrible idea, I told you all! This is all my fault!" Qrow slammed his fist into the tree he was leaning on.

Jaune walked over to him. "What? Do you mean your semblance is doing this?"

"No, I mean I've lead you along this path. This pointless path this entire time." Qrow shook his head. "Every choice I and Oz have made, lead you guys astray. There is no hope. What was I thinking in dragging you kids along?" he took his flask out and was about to drink when Ruby suddenly pulled that hand away from him.

"Uncle Qrow." Ruby looked up at him sadly. "Please. We're all dealing with this as a group. We're going to do the best we possibly can, because what's the point of not? If we're going to die anyway, I'd rather give it my all than just curl up and die. Look, we would have come even if you didn't. We're not your responsibility, Uncle Qrow. We're our own people and if you want to be of any help to us... Maybe, just maybe be here and take this stand with us." she offered her hand out to him.

Qrow looked between Ruby and his flask before taking a deep breath and putting his flask away and accepting his niece's offered hand. "When and how did you grow up?" he asked.

"Well, I had some helpful guidance." Ruby smiled back to her uncle.

"Uh guys?" Weiss interrupted this moment over their communications. "The whole military isn't coming after our ship."

"What do you mean?!" Ruby asked before everyone glanced over to Argus base where suddenly the central mountain part of the base started to open up, revealing the giant Robot that had been sitting dormant inside of the base.

The Colossal mech stood up and began to walk in the direction of the ship. "Clearly you fools don't understand that your own safety is because of Atlas!" Cordovin's voice declared. "Once I locate your miscreant friends, my forces will gather on your location and take you in for proper punishment! As for your punishment? Let this be the first demonstration!"

"Is she in that thing?!" Jaune asked as the mech raised it's massive arm cannon up in the direction of the ship, firing off a shot that grazed the ship's right wing and affected Maria's eyes.

"Are you okay?!" Weiss panicked.

"I'll be okay, but Cordo over there has CLEARLY lost her mind!" Maria tried to start outmaneuver where the Mech's arm was.

As the ship flew by the cliff where everyone was waiting, the Colossal Mech followed in pursuit before turning and spotting everyone on the cliff.

"It is time for you children to ask yourselves, do you really wish to defy me?!" Cordovin yelled as she alerted the soldiers to where everyone was.

"They're gonna be on us in seconds!" Oscar panicked now.

"We can hold off a few measly, soldiers, can't we?" Nora asked.

"How are we gonna fight that though?" Ren asked.

Ruby spoke into her ear piece again. "Weiss we need you down here."

"Why?" she asked.

"We're going to take that thing down."

* * *

"Why's- rada-not down?" Weiss's voice asked.

"-Don't... know... ak- Isn't-spond-" Ruby's muffled voice continued before the scroll was cleaved clean in two.

Blake panted heavily as she leaned against the central pillar holding the relay tower up on an upper platform before turning and noticing a dead soldier with a stab wound right next to her.

Startled, she backed away only to barely dodge a gunshot fired from Blush, taking a step back and unsheathing Gambol Shroud, Blake turned to face Adam.

"So glad you're finally alone now, Blake! Now we can take this time to enjoy the peaceful scenery together." Adam smirked to her as he pulled the hood off his head, revealing his scarred face to her.

"Leave me alone!" Blake opened fire, attempting to hit what she thought was Adam's blind side, but he merely blocked the bullets with Wilt.

"Why would I do that?!" Adam laughed as he sheathed Wilt.

Blake ran over towards the cable that connected to a neighboring tower and attempted to use it as a zip line to get away. Adam activated his semblance and sliced clean through it before she could escape.

Blake fell to the ground right in front of him where he charged at her. She raised Gambol Shroud up to block his first slash before getting shoved back slightly. She then released herself from their blade lock and swung at him, but he blocked each slash before countering with a large slash downward that Blake sidestepped away from and responded with a kick to his face that caused him to stagger back.

"Who I am now is, YOUR fault Blake! I lost everything because of what you've done! You ruined my life!" Adam yelled at her.

"I don't want anything to do with your life! You're nothing more than a stalker now!" Blake spat back at him before he then came at her.

This time with a heavy horizontal swing that would only hit a shadow clone as Blake backed away and he attempted to hit her with a slash of his semblance but instead only struck a shadow clone as Blake landed on an upper platform of the relay tower.

Aiming her gun down, Blake was confused when she saw that he was gone before suddenly, Wilt shot out from behind her and hit the side of her face. Adam caught it with a chuckle.

Blake transformed Gambol Shroud into it's Kusarigama form and latched it onto the central pillar before swinging at Adam with a kick that he blocked with Wilt again, forcing her back while she caught her weapon.

Smirking confidently, Adam charged forward towards his former partner, slashing out at her, only for his slash to be repelled by Gambol Shroud thrown in his direction.

Blake spun it around in one hand now and swung at him, several times with Gambol Shroud's Kusarigama form, each slash and gunshot was deflected or dodged before Blake pulled Gambol Shroud back to her hand. She then attempted to slash at Adam with it in it's Katana form getting caught in another blade lock that he was winning yet again.

Before Blake could fake him out again, he grabbed her wrist and threw her to the ground where she tumbled. But again, Blake got up and hooked Gambol Shroud onto the upper level of the tower and pulled herself up to try and catch her breath for a moment.

Adam was hot on her tail however and just as quickly as she had gotten up there, he appeared before her and grabbed her throat. "I'm going to squeeze the life out of you, and then when I'm done, I'll kill all of your friends!" he shoved her back and they were now leaning on the railing. Doing the only thing she could think of doing, Blake stepped on his foot, and in turn sent the both of them tumbling over the edge of the relay tower.

The two fell from the tower, slamming through several tree branches on the way down before finally landing at the base of it.

Blake stood herself up first, finally catching her breath. "Let go of the past Adam, do it for yourself." she gripped Gambol Shroud tightly.

Adam scoffed while standing himself up. "Let it all go?! I've been hurt all of my life. If I just let it all go, I would only get hurt again." his blue hue glared directly at Blake. "The biggest mistake I ever made was letting you go, and I'll **never** make that mistake again." he grasped the handle of Wilt.

Knowing that a peaceful solution was out of the question, Blake merely readied her stance as Adam rushed towards her.

* * *

**Commentary**: Here we are with this chapter. Sorry it took a couple of days to get it up on here, life's been busy for me as of lately. But that aside, we kick off the finale now. With the whole Cordovin fight still happening, there will be some differences with this fight, mainly to do with some stupid things that could have been done better. But the real highlight fight is of course the Blake vs Adam fight that's starting here. You'll see more next chapter. Blake's going to be using all the tricks up her arsenal for this fight.


	12. Chapter 12: Lady in the Shoe

The ocean shook beneath the feet of the Colossus as Caroline Cordovin was in pursuit of the retreating airship that Weiss and Maria had stolen.

"You wanna fight that thing?!" Weiss asked.

"Just come down here, we need you, now!" Ruby insisted as two military cars barred the only path out now.

"Uh guys?!" Oscar pointed to the two military vehicles blocking the path out.

"We're not running." Ruby stated firmly as Cordovin saw the ship land right by where the others converged.

"Good. A single target. All the easier to hit!" she laughed as she fired a shot out at her cannon that would be blocked by a massive wall of ice created by Weiss, before she then turned towards the two cars and created a giant Icicle between them, flipping them on their sides before the soldiers in them could make any attempt to get out. The doors were frozen shut as well now, trapping them for the time.

"What's the plan?!" she asked.

"Well from what we're aware, this thing was meant to fight Large enemies, like large Aquatic Grimm." Jaune explained.

"Therefore, it shouldn't be able to fight smaller things like us." Ruby brought up.

"I think I see where you're getting at! So we just gotta knock it over, right?" Nora asked.

"That might help. But we'll need more support than that." Jaune stated as the ice wall Weiss made was starting to slowly chip away from another shot fired at it.

"You children will all be put in your place!" she yelled.

"Oscar, I need you to fly around and look for any weak points on this thing with Maria." Ruby stated as she looked to him.

"On it." Oscar hopped into the cockpit with Maria who smiled coyly to him.

"Welcome to Calavera airlines! Where you're allowed to munch on all the cashews you could hope for!" she laughed as she offered some to him.

"Ooh." Oscar took one.

"The rest of us are going to divert her attention in as many directions as we possibly can." Ruby smirked. "She might be able to hit one moving target, but let's see her try several."

Another shot cracked the barricade even further.

"Ready?" Ruby asked as Weiss stabbed Myrtenaster into the ground and a summoning glyph appeared.

"Ready." Weiss smirked up to Ruby before boosting her up into the air with a glyph as the last shot from the Colossus shattered the barricade.

_Check you out in your big Metal shoe!  
Fighting so many kids don't know what to do?!  
You've got some heavy metal but, big ain't bad!  
This Little Riding Hood's just way too rad!_

Ruby immediately fired a shot out towards the Colossus with Crescent Rose, the shot bounced off harmlessly, but did it's job in annoying Cordovin as the ship flew off to the right while Team JNR rushed off to the left.

The Colossus then switched to missiles that all fired out towards the cliff. Ruby landed atop one of them and started rushing forward, jumping from Missile to Missile and letting herself fall.

Weiss created a slide of Ice to catch her that she slid off of and jumped further into the air from.

_Mirror, Mirror  
Who will lose it all?!  
Soundly Whip those Children,  
Or your Cradle's gonna fall!_

Weiss and Ruby jumped from Icy platform to platform that Weiss was making as Cordovin found her attention diverted towards JNR.

"Hey look over here!" Jaune called out as Nora fired out her grenade rounds at the Colossus, bouncing harmlessly off it's shield.

"And you told me it wasn't beach season!" Nora laughed as she kept running as Ren opened fire as well to little effect.

_Cuz I'm alive,  
Like a puppet with a heartbeat!  
I'm on fire!  
And I'm flying off the dope sheet!_

It was then that Weiss stabbed Myrtenaster into an icy platform and caused Cordovin's mech to stumble about.  
_  
You're gonna wind up, like that Robin with your last tweet!  
You're headin' for a fall and you're nearing the end,  
Like a house made of straw no one's putting you together again!_

Cordovin screamed as she stumbled about, falling and leaning herself against the cliffside where Jaune attempted to slash at her with his sword, but his attack bounced off of her shield.

Ren on the other hand leaped up and climbed onto the Colossus's shoulder, now holding on for dear life. Jaune then got up and put his hand on Nora's shoulder, boosting her Aura while she then, with the charge Jaune had given her, swung at the Colossus full force, leaving a sizable dent in it's armor. The shield struggled to hold back the power of Nora's attack

That victory was short lived however when Nora took her second swing and the Hard Light Shield was able to hold back her weaker swing and launch the pair of them away.

"You foolish Children! Atlas Technology is superior to your puny weaponry! We're the masters of Hard light Dust! Something your feeble young mind's couldn't comprehend!" Cordovin taunted as Ren was now sneaking around atop the Colossus' back along with Qrow who landed there in his bird form.

Ruby was climbing along the Colossus' leg as well now, clinging for dear life as it kept moving.

"You will bear witness to the Might of ATLAS!" Cordovin yelled as she then had her Colossus hold it's arm out and sweep at Nora and Jaune on the cliff. Thinking fast, Jaune caught her and with both of their Auras they were able to tank the hit although the end result was their auras both breaking.

"Do you see anything yet Oscar?" Ruby asked.

"I think the power core for the shield is on the back!" Oscar stated.

"The power core?! Why would it be in such an obvious spot?" Weiss asked as she was now flying around on a queen lancer summon, diverting Cordovin's attention like an obnoxious fly.

"I mean if we're going off of video game logic here, the weak spot is always on the back!" Ruby reasoned as Ren, using both of his Stormflower guns pried the panel off of the Colossus's back and saw the most obvious markings to show it's a shield generator.

"Wow, they weren't kidding." Qrow remarked as him and Ren both opened fire on the shield generator destroying it as Ruby jumped up and sliced at the front window of the Cockpit, her weapon stabbing into it as alarms went off like crazy inside of the ship.

"GET OFF OF ME!" she yelled as she shook Ruby off of her.

"HELP!" Ruby cried out as Qrow turned into his bird form, but missed her as she fell.

However at the last second a white blur buzzed by and even caught Ren as he was shaken off as well.

"Careful Ruby! I might not have caught you there!" Weiss shook her head.

"But I knew you would." Ruby grinned cheekily.

"Thank you." Ren nodded as Weiss just smiled and then sped them toward the cliff again as the main cannon of the Colossus was aimed at them.

It immediately opened fire with wind dust and blasted the summon apart, scattering everyone.

Weiss landed atop the cliff while Ren, stabbed his weapons just into the top of it.

Ruby quickly regained herself with her semblance, but narrowly missed her jump as Ren caught her hand.

Nora sat up and saw what was going to happen. "DONT YOU LAY A FINGER ON MY MAN!" She was readying to charge forward and help Ren as the Colossus charged up another shot.

"We need to help them!" Oscar looked to Maria who while flipping a few switches activated the ship's missile system and fired a single missile that struck the back of the Colossus.

"Bullseye!" she laughed. "How'd you like that, Cordo?!"

Gritting her teeth in anger, Cordovin realized who had struck her from behind. "Calavera..." she then redirected the main cannon arm of the Colossus and fired a missile out. The missile struck the left engine of the ship, causing it to start speeding out of control.

"Maria! Oscar!" Ruby called out in the panic as she watched the ship descend past them into the forest.

* * *

Clashing blades echoed through the forests west of Argus.

Wilt clashed against Gambol Shroud's sheath as Blake attempted to swing at Adam with her katana, only to be met with his as he kept forcing her back with each clash. One slash nearly hit her, but thankfully only hit a shadow clone as she backed away.

Adam wasn't relenting as he sprung off of his front foot towards her, slashing out at her with both hands on Wilt. Blake clashed both of her blades with Wilt and attempted to force him back with all of her might, but found herself overpowered and shoved back.

Seeing as there was no other option, Blake ran back and started to climb up trees along the way to put as much distance between her and Adam as she could. Remembering where Yang had parked, Blake knew she couldn't do this alone and now latched Gambol Shroud onto a tree.

"Think your friends can help you this time?!" Adam mocked as he followed her while she fired shots off at him between swings that he blocked. "FIGHT ME YOU COWARD! Or is all that you're good at running?!" he yelled at her.

As she threw Gambol Shroud to the next tree, she would be caught off guard when Wilt shot out towards the next branch Gambol Shroud was to latch onto, and instead knocked Gambol Shroud off course. Adam smirked at this chance and caught Wilt before slashing out towards the falling Blake.

He cut clean through her trench coat, but Blake was unharmed as she bounded off the clone Adam just hit and kicked him in the back, landing him several feet away from her where she stood without her coat on now.

Blake then opened fire onto him several times, two bullets struck his chest but the rest were all deflected by Wilt as he panted heavily now while she backed away from him again when he lunged forward.

Blake blocked his next attack with Gambol Shroud's sheath and leaped backwards when his next attack cut through a tree that nearly fell atop her.

The pair of combatants now landed by a natural bridge in front of a waterfall as the sound of the tree falling echoed around them and the dust from the forest followed Adam out of it. Blake held a wide stance as Adam stood ready with his hand on Wilt as it was sheathed again.

Adam immediately charged forward unsheathing Wilt and attempting to strike Blake with Blush, but Blake blocked it with her sheath before then striking at him with her katana. He dodged and slashed down at her with Wilt, but she spun around to the side to avoid it before he then shot at the back of her head, only to instead hit a stone clone of Blake that crumbled to dust while Blake jumped right at him from a couple of feet away.

Wilt was thrust right in her direction, but would instead find itself sheathed in Gambol Shroud's bladed sheath that Blake then pulled away from Adam's hand, now disarming Adam of his sword.

Gritting his teeth in anger, Adam fired a shot from blush out at Blake, who deflected it with her katana and bounding off of a clone made of wind, Blake jumped down at Adam from above, and slashed down at him with her sheath. Blush was raised up to block this attack as Blake then created a fire clone right in front of Adam that he shot, causing it to explode.

He slid a few feet back as a result of the blast before Blake immediately continued to go on the offensive. Adam fired off several more shots at her that she deflected with both of her blades while charging towards him and taking a kick to the face that knocked her back again.

Blake recovered quickly though, turning the knock back into a back flip that she quickly bounded up from and attempted to return the kick right back at him. Adam simply just caught her foot and she jumped over him, readying another slash when Adam charged forward and grabbed at her wrists, preventing her from further attacking him.

"If you just behaved, None of this would have happened!" Adam yelled before grasping Wilt from Gambol Shroud's sheath and ripping it from Blake's hand. He then spun her around and hit her with the back end of Wilt's handle, slamming her to the ground harshly with her ears ringing from the impact.

"But you're selfish!" Adam jumped at her and slashed down with full force just as she was attempting to get up, clashing blades with her and knocking her back.

"You're a coward!" he slashed at her, again only hitting Gambol Shroud, but the force of his strike was enough to cause Blake to tumble away from him.

"You're a deluded psychopath." Blake glared up at him as he held Wilt over the stab wound he had given her and slashed down at her with the intent of spilling her guts out. Gambol Shroud was raised up to block this attack as he activated his semblance slightly with this one, cleaving clean through Gambol Shroud.

The shards of Gambol Shroud clattered to the ground beside her as she now looked up towards him where a look of what seemed to be remorse happened upon his face.

"You know, Blake. I've suffered so much pain all throughout my life." he confessed. One of Blake's cat ears notably tilted away from him slightly as the sound of an engine was heard in the distance.

"Humans tortured me, treated me like I was nothing. The White Fang rejected me after what happened at Haven. That help that Salem promised me didn't come after Haven either. I was left all by myself. But none of the pain I've endured comes close to the pain you've caused me. You left me feeling empty inside." Adam turned away from her.

Blake was looking in the direction she heard the sound of the motorcycle engine of Bumblebee before starting to back away in that direction when Adam's foot came down on her leg making her scream out in pain.

"No. No more running. You'll never run away from me again, Blake. You'll always be mine." he stated coldly while raising his sword up. "Even if my last memory of you, is you dying cold and alone in the middle of nowhere. That's good enough for me. Now then, I'd like you to tell me one thing. How does it feel to have nothing?"

Blake stayed silent as Adam's eyes narrowed. "I SAID GIVE ME AN ANSWER, BLAKE!" he stabbed her where he stabbed her at Beacon, but instead she vanished in the vapory shadows that her semblance created.

"I have all I need, and I'm not alone!" Blake stood up in defiance with Gambol Shroud's sheath clutched in her hand.

Before Adam had time to react, Bumblebee drove right off the cliff above the waterfall and slammed right into Adam, knocking him several feet away from Blake. Yang landed on a knee, right in between Blake and Adam while Bumblebee fell into the river below.

Groaning in pain, Adam stood himself up. "You!" His eyes narrowed in anger before Yang fired a red flare shot right at him, that exploded against Wilt, doing little more than give it extra power.

"Yang!" Blake tried to stand back up, but found herself too exhausted to do so.

"It's okay. Get some rest, I can hold him off." Yang assured her as her left hand was notably starting to shake, but she quickly closed her fist and took a deep breath, calming herself down for this.

"Yang, are you sure-" before Blake could talk to Yang anymore, Adam spoke up.

"Yeah, it's fine Blake. We have unfinished business anyway." Adam shook Wilt in front of him as it and his hair flashed red for a moment. "Gonna tremble like you did at Haven?" he taunted.

Yang didn't respond to his provocation which annoyed him further.

"I should have killed you back at Beacon." he stated coldly before rushing in Yang's direction.

Raising her arms up in defense, Yang blocked and dodged the first set of slashes he sent her way, each slash creating a black and red doppelganger of Adam. The doppelgangers combined with all slashes colliding with Yang's gauntlet and pushing her back further.

Slashing down with his sword, Yang raised her arms up to block his attack and punched his sword away when it was thrown in her direction. The blade stabbed into the ground as Adam fired a shot off from Blush at Yang to keep her away from him while he retrieved Wilt and slashed upward with it, Yang again being forced to back away.

Adam then started slashing at her with his Iado slices, hitting her gauntlets with each strike as she slid back further. Yang ran forward, ducking and weaving from the next slashes Adam threw her way, throwing a couple of Dempsey roll punches in Adam's direction, both of which were caught by Wilt.

Yang's next punch collided with Adam's chest along with the shot that came with it as he stood his ground from the hit. Not letting up her assault Yang continued with an uppercut that struck him under his chin and knocked him into the air where she hit him with a kick in the stomach.

In anger, Adam bounded forward and attempted to slash at the blonde, but Yang caught his sword wielding hand with her prosthetic and held it over his head now.

Taking this chance, Ember Celica smashed against Adam's ribs making him cough out in pain before Yang kicked him in the chest, forcing his sword wielding arm over his back. Releasing her grip on that arm now, Yang punched him right in the face, sending him staggering forward and struggling to catch his own bearings.

She wasn't finished with him yet as she ran right in his direction and threw out a flurry of punches that he barely managed to bring out Wilt in time to block. "**ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA**!" she yelled before finally jumping into the air and hitting him in the face with a roundhouse kick that knocked him back further.

"**ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAA**!" Yang shouted as she fired out several shots in Adam's direction that he caught with Wilt before charging forward with two shadow doppelgangers of him running around Yang with him.

Yang raised her arms up in defense as she was unsure of where his next strike would come due to her seeing double. Adam then jumped up into the air and stabbed Wilt into the ground right in front of her and she blocked the attack entirely.

"His semblance is like your's!" Blake explained. "He absorbs energy through his sword and sends it back when he's ready!"

"So my suspicions were right... How cheap, he can absorb energy without having to feel it." the blonde scoffed before firing two shots off behind her that propelled her forward while she now reeled her fist back for the punch.

Recognizing this scenario from their first encounter Adam prepared a slash from Wilt, but was caught off guard when Yang instead punched herself slightly off course, and was spinning in the air.

She kicked him right in the face and he attempted to slash at her, only for her to propel herself away from him with another shot. Slashing at her again, Adam missed from another propelled dodge away from him.

As she slid back, Yang's prosthetic arm grabbed onto the ground to slow her down before she stood up and charged forward again, this time firing shots behind her and below her to boost herself forward and upward.

Seeing her flying at him, Adam attempted to shoot her out of the air but instead took a punch to the face from her as she descended upon him.

Again, Adam staggered back slowly while Yang took this chance to kick him in the chest, which forced him back more. He swung at her with Wilt, but she ducked from it and jumped at him, kicking him a few more times in the chest before punching at him one more time.

This last punch collided with Wilt as Yang held herself against the blade. The two held for an extended moment, the metal of both of their weapons creaking slightly from the effort. However, the moment Wilt started to glow, Adam smirked and pushed her off of him, sending her rolling away onto the ground where she fired another shot at him that he swatted out of the air with Wilt.

Starting to shake nervously again, Yang noticed Adam looking between her and Blake before his eyes narrowed in Blake's direction. Unsheathing Wilt, Adam now glowed with the power of his semblance and thrust it forward in a stabbing Motion towards Blake.

"BLAKE!" Yang called out as she boosted herself forward with a shot from Ember Celica.

"Yang!" Blake yelled as Yang shoved her out of the way of the attack, with her prosthetic arm taking the brunt of the attack.

Blake was able to stand herself up and look towards Yang as the dust settled.

Yang stood completely still, seemingly unfazed, despite the large stab wound that her prosthetic arm had that was causing it to spark slightly and shake. "Leave us alone. This is your last chance." Yang warned as her left hand started shaking again.

Spotting this from Yang, Adam couldn't help but laugh to himself. "Do you really think you can kill me? Or are you just scared you'll die protecting her?" he taunted as Yang grit her teeth and readied to attack him again.

_Nevermore,_

"No, Adam." Blake took a step forward, taking hold of Yang's shaking hand. "She's not protecting me."

_Nevermore,  
Will I be afraid,  
Nor will I run away_

"And I'm not protecting her." she held a firm stance now as Yang smiled to her partner for finally understanding.

_It's behind me,  
Freedom is finally here...  
_  
The two glared forward at Adam as they stood in front of the waterfall.

* * *

**Commentary**: The fight with Cordovin continues here. Not really much else to be said other than her shield does tank more hits. Now then for the next part of the chapter, Blake and Yang vs Adam. The first section with just Blake did go on a bit longer than in the original and certain moves and attacks were executed differently. Blake actually used her clones and yeah. Adam's dialogue is different considering how his face didn't need to be revealed here. Yang vs Adam was mostly fine as is. Though I did add a little more flare where I could and well... Next chapter's gonna be where we see some real differences with this fight. One note, I did also make the dialogue at the end a little less dumb or hokey.


	13. Chapter 13: Seeing Red

Monitors and screens lit up the room in Argus base as the various soldiers were cheering on their commanding officer as she was no doubt, showing those treasonous children why to not mess with Atlas.

However, one thing that was notably slipping from their radar was a blip approaching from the north...

Back on the cliff side, Jaune had managed to pull both Ren and Ruby up the cliff before Ruby put a finger to her ear piece. "Oscar, are you okay?!"

"We're fine Ruby!" Oscar assured. "And I think I found the weakness for that Colossus!"

"We're all ears." Nora stated as the Colossus was starting to turn back towards the gathered group.

"I'll crush you all like the insects you are! You should be ashamed Calavera! Roping these children in with your machinations! You're only killing them along with yourself now!" Cordovin yelled.

"It's the Missile launcher and the cannon." Oscar explained. "When the missile launcher is out, all the available missiles are in the open and when the cannon is charging up for an attack, it's vulnerable for an interception. But we'd need a precise shot to hit either."

"Well then, it's good that you have a sniper." Ruby smirked before walking towards the edge of the cliff where Maria and Oscar flew by with the ship thankfully undamaged. She jumped aboard and Qrow looked to her worriedly. "I'll be fine, Uncle Qrow."

"You better be!" he called out as Ruby opened fire with her sniper, trying to divert Cordovin's attention from everyone else.

Maria launched out the remaining Missiles the ship had at the Colossus which blocked most of them, only taking minimal damage.

"You dare challenge Atlas?! You will fall!" she yelled as she then readied her cannon's missile Launcher. Seeing her chance, Ruby took a shot at it, but would miss as the bullet harmlessly bounced off the outer shell of the Colossus when it closed. "Do you really take me for a fool, Calavera?! It was a clever plan, but even the most intelligent animal is no match for a human!"

"Well I'd be lying if I said I didn't take ya for a moron." Maria admitted as she dodged another shot fired her way from the cannon, it was another electrical shot that damaged Maria's eyes. "I CANT SEE!" she yelled as Oscar took control as the ship was starting to steer away from Cordovin, landing it back on the cliff.

Ruby leaped out of the ship before it got to the cliff and landed right onto the top of the Colossus' arm.

"Ruby!" Qrow was about to go after her, but Nora stopped him.

The Colossus in turn moved it's hand outward and Ruby moved herself till she was standing on it's hand now.

"I could crush you like a bug. Surrender for your crimes to Atlas, or be killed." Cordovin threatened as she moved the Colossus' fingers slightly, but Ruby didn't falter even as she pointed the cannon right at her.

"We told you we needed to go to Atlas. And you shut the door right on our faces! You don't even care if we have a mission or anything!" Ruby glared at her. "This was the only option you left us with!"

"We left you with that option?!" Cordovin scoffed. "Don't make me laugh, girl. You don't understand the kind of power you're messing with. The might of Atlas!"

Ruby grit her teeth slightly and stomped a foot down. "We've been told time and time again by people bigger than us, bigger than you that we're in way over our heads and yet every time we've gone and proven them wrong! We wouldn't be stealing if you just wanted to help us! We're both on the same side here, Miss Cordovin, we both want to help and protect the people! But to do that, we need to get to Atlas to enlist the help of General Ironwood."

The cannon started to charge up now as Cordovin had enough of this girl's insolence. "I've heard enough. You think General Ironwood is some servant you can order around?! You're sorely mistaken!"

Closing her eyes, Ruby jumped straight down the barrel of the Colossus's cannon as Cordovin attempted to close it's hand on her, and took aim with Crescent Rose.

"Ruby!" Oscar called out.

"What's she doing?!" Weiss asked.

"She's getting herself killed." Qrow ran forward now.

With a single shot from Crescent Rose, Ruby was blasted out of the cannon as it exploded into a mess of dust effects, fire, lightning, ice and stone. The arm was completely down now as Ruby fell through the air with her aura shattering, Weiss used several glyphs to catch her as Crescent Rose clattered to the ground while Ruby landed in Qrow's arms.

"Ruby, Ruby!" Qrow shook her and she coughed while waking up.

"I told ya I'd be fine." she smiled to her Uncle as he sighed in relief.

Maria had just finished fixing her own eyes and looked towards the scene. "Aw dammit! I missed it!" she groaned as Cordovin screamed out in anger.

* * *

Standing together with hands held, Blake and Yang stared Adam down as he scoffed. "You're stupid to think that I couldn't take you both on. What makes you so confident now?"

Blake just shook her head. "You've left me with no other choice. Unless you kindly back off and move on with your life. I've made promises, to the people I actually care about now." she looked to Yang who smiled back at her. "If you think I'll just abandon them all for you again, you're mistaken!"

"You know, Yang. She made promises to me too. Look where she's standing now." Adam shook his head.

Gritting her teeth, Yang took a step forward. "Was she making those promises to you? Or the person you were pretending to be, just to get close to her?" she asked as Adam's eyes narrowed in anger. "We're giving you an out. Just take it and leave!" she threatened.

"Was I not good enough for you?" Adam asked cockily, looking at how close the two seemed.

"You know, it's so much more than that." Blake stated as she held Gambol Shroud's bladed Sheath forward, ready for him if he came forward. "Just take our advice, and leave. This is your last chance."

Adam took a step back for a moment as the water flowed, looking down to his weapon but then back up to the two of them. "Well then, you've made your choice." Adam's hand rested on Wilt's handle before his grip tightened on it. "I've made mine."

With those last words, he charged at the pair while they readied their stances. Slashing out at Blake, he would miss his first strike on her and only hit a clone before having to deflect a punch from Yang's prosthetic arm.

Blake slashed out at him, but he blocked her attack with Blush, firing a shot to keep her back. He attempted to slash out at Yang who backflipped away from it as he then sheathed Wilt again while Blake ran at him, both hands gripped on the remaining half of Gambol Shroud.

Enraged, Adam slashed downward at Blake, who jumped back and then onto the top of Wilt and over his head towards Yang who ran at him with another Dempsey roll, striking him with both punches before firing shots to boost her away from a slash. Blake took this chance to get a hit on his arm, having a clone take a hit from Blush as Adam attempted to swat her away with it.

Yang landed a few feet away and watched as Blake clashed Blades with Adam in a couple of quick swipes before faking him out with a clone and getting behind him, kicking him in the back and in her direction. Adam's eyes went wide as he didn't have the time to block the next hit from Yang who had boosted herself forward, Ember Celica slamming right into his stomach.

Adam was now being forced back by the onslaught Blake and Yang were going on, slashes from Blake that he could barely block along with punches from Yang that connected most of the time. The Pair struck him at the same time with a slash and a punch, that sent him tumbling away from them.

Slashing Wilt out in front of him, Adam's eyes narrowed at Blake who backflipped towards one of the remaining pieces of Gambol Shroud and threw it attached to it's Ribbon.

Thinking fast, the attack from the broken blade was deflected by Wilt while Yang, who was readying another attack saw this coming back at Blake and caught Gambol Shroud in her hand, pulling back on the ribbon. Blake ran around now, the pair pulling off their team attack move but reversed before Yang finally released her grip on Blake and she slashed down at Adam using the momentum she built up to add more force to her slash.

Getting pushed back slightly, Adam let out a yell before his semblance activated again, and he wound up knocking Blake away from the natural bridge they were fighting on.

Blake was slammed harshly into the rock wall, landing on a lower platform while her aura shattered.

"Blake!" Yang called out as Adam smirked to her. Gritting her teeth in rage, Yang unloaded the last of Blake's ammo from the half of Gambol Shroud she held at Adam who blocked all the bullets with ease as Yang's prosthetic arm sparked again and Gambol Shroud dropped from it now as it went limp.

Chuckling at this Adam kept walking towards her. "Why so troubled? Is your new arm failing you now?" he taunted before rushing at her.

Yang dodged and blocked his next coming vertical slash with her left gauntlet and boosted herself back with it to avoid the next one while internally cursing at herself.

"I recognize that look in your eyes." Adam snickered. "It's the same one you gave me at Haven. You must know, it's all over now. No one will save you this time!"

Yang's hand was starting to shake again fearfully as Adam slashed downward with Wilt and upward at her with Blush, the first attack hitting her gauntlet, but the upward slash hit her, knocking her onto her back where she again got up.

"Fight back!" he yelled at her while she again dodged another vertical swipe of both Wilt and Blush before getting hit with the back end of Blush.

Yang glanced over towards the rock wall behind Adam now, where Blake was starting to climb up, but notably struggling due to some of the rocks being moist from the waterfall.

"What does Blake even see in you?! You're just another human!" Adam yelled, throwing his blade out at her. Yang deflected it back by raising her gauntlet in front of her face before taking a kick to the face that sent her rolling away again.

"You should just die like every other human." Adam spat out as Yang stood herself up, falling to a knee in exhaustion before finally forcing herself back up. "What Blake said about our semblances." Adam remarked while walking towards Yang who's left hand was shaking as her breathing grew heavier. "They're similar right?"

"Yes." Yang wiped a bit of dust from her face as Adam's sinister grin grew while now standing right in front of her.

"The fact that a human like you has such a similarity to me, is an abomination. But I already know, you're beneath me." Adam unsheathed Wilt now while his hair was starting to glow.

Yang glanced over to the cliff again, not seeing Blake at all now, returning her gaze back to Adam.

"Hit me with everything you've got!" he yelled before slashing down with Wilt at Yang with his semblance at full power.

"**ORAAA**!" Yang yelled as her eyes flashed red and her hair lit up on fire, slamming her left gauntlet onto Wilt in a collision that shook the ground and the air around them, almost making Blake lose grip of the cliff she was climbing up.

The two fighters held firm as their semblances collided, their hair alight and both of them pushing forward as much as they could. Yang felt the intense burn on her left arm, while Adam felt the pressure of her shoving Wilt back as hard as she could. "Are you even trying, Yang?!" Adam taunted as he was starting to shove her back.

Yang was starting to get pushed back as her left hand was starting to tremble again, despite that she didn't let go as Adam yelled and a dark wave enveloped the two of them. The whole world seemed to turn dark around them as the only lights visible were Yang's Gauntlet and her hair, along with the red accents on Adam's outfit, his hair and Wilt.

Wilt was now inches from Yang's face as she felt herself get pushed back more, her feet sliding back along the dirt now. Yang could only close her eyes as she felt as though everything was all over. She could now only think back to her moments of weakness, Weiss nearly getting killed at Haven because of her, her moping in bed at home, her losing her arm at Beacon, her loss to Neo on that train and her nearly getting herself and Ruby killed when they were younger. Her hand trembled more as she felt her weakness starting to overcome her entirely.

However, one thing snapped her back into reality, it was the sound of Blake screaming out as she was still climbing up the cliff to reach her. Suddenly the wave of darkness Adam was shrouded with that seemingly affected the whole world, brushed over her as though it had passed.

An intense feeling of burning overcame Yang as she felt all the positive memories in her life come to her mind. Team RWBY reuniting, their first victory during the Vytal Festival, Team RWBY casually hanging out with each other, her being proud to see Ruby as a leader, her holding her baby sister in her arms for the first time and lastly one specific memory came to her mind.

"I'm gonna be the strongest huntress in all of the world!" a younger Yang declared as she looked up to the woman who's lap she was laying on, it was none other than her mother, Summer Rose. Summer simply smiled down to her daughter.

Yang and the world around her was starting to glow a bright white that even overshadowed Adam's power, making his eyes go wide with surprise as Yang was starting to force herself forward now.

Feeling overwhelmed, Adam struggled to keep Yang at bay. "What's this power?! Is this your dying breath?!" he asked her, but no response came. Adam now was in the same position Yang was, with Wilt now being inches from his face as Yang's wave of light faded away. Gritting his teeth, Adam took grip of Wilt with his other hand and put his back more into it.

Adam smirked in satisfaction as he was starting to shove Yang back again. The struggle suddenly came to it's head when a slight cracking sound was heard. Staring in Yang's direction Adam slightly chuckled when he saw Ember Celica start to crack. Yang however didn't falter as with one more slight push from her leg, Wilt was starting to crack. "It's over." Yang stated.

Before he had any time to react, the crack on Wilt started to spread further across the blade before finally Yang's fist and Ember Celica drove right through the sword and slammed directly into Adam's chest. He screamed as his Aura shattered and he was slammed right into the ground with enough force to create a crater. Wilt's handle and Blush flew off his person as he impacted the ground.

"You're right, you might be better, faster or more powerful than me. But I'm still smarter than you." Yang smiled as her aura shattered.

"H-How?" Adam grunted as he forced himself to his feet.

"You spent that whole fight throwing out your semblance, I only used mine there." Yang shook her head before noticing Blake finally climbing back up and panting heavily.

Adam glanced over towards the half of Gambol Shroud that was on the ground, gritting his teeth.

_You may have taken the lead  
But I'll even the score_

Both eyes locked on the half of Gambol Shroud as Adam rushed over to grab it before Blake could so he could finish her off himself.

_You won the battle,  
You won't win the war_

Yang ran forward as well, grabbing the other half of Gambol Shroud's blade as she did while Blake managed to grab the handle half of Gambol Shroud.

_Not now,  
And **Nevermore**!_

Yang and Blake let out yells as they stabbed Adam through his chest and through his back.

Looking down at the fatal wounds he just received Adam could only muster a few words. "So... That's how it is."

With that, the blades were pulled from his body and he stumbled off, walking away as the pair glared at him while he tried to walk into the forest. However, he finally collapsed in the distance, falling entirely limp as his own blood started to pool around him.

Blake fell to her knees, sobbing as Yang rushed to her side and knelt down in front of her. "I-I'll never leave again. I-I won't break my promise to you, I swear!"

Yang cupped Blake's cheek and rested her forehead against her's. "I know you won't." she sobbed with her.

* * *

The Colossus thrashed about in the water as it's cannon arm was disabled and stuck into the ground. "YOU ARE NEVER GETTING TO ATLAS, You hear me?! DO YOU HEAR ME!?" she yelled as everyone boarded the ship and was just about ready to fly out.

"All forces converge on me!" she yelled.

"We should probably get going." Qrow remarked as he stepped aboard the ship last.

"We'll loop around for Blake and Yang." Ruby stated as Maria started to pull the ship out.

"Got it." she chuckled before an emergency broadcast to all of Argus played.

"Attention, People of Argus, we have a Grimm threat approaching the city! Level 10 Grimm threat approaching City!" the alarm alerted.

Cordovin's eyes went wide in shock, realizing what this meant and she looked down shamefully.

"Oh no. We have a new problem guys." Jaune stated, pointing out towards the northern sea, where a Massive Leviathan was approaching Argus from a distance away.

The military base was readying all ships to engage the Leviathan and any oncoming Grimm that flew with it.

"We've just taken out the only thing that could defeat it." Qrow remarked in realization as the team all looked down towards where Cordovin was now.

* * *

**Commentary**: Thus ends our two big fights of the volume. With Cordovin going down mostly the same and Adam going down a bit differently. I admit I've had this specific idea for how this fight could have ended in my head for a while. I like how it turned out personally.


	14. Chapter 14: Our Way

The quiet sounds of an a Mistral Airship engine echoed through the forest clearing as Cinder Fall, now donning a new outfit stepped towards the ship.

A single pilot stepped out through the back of the ship and after the clearing of an illusion revealed herself as Neo wearing a new outfit with Roman's hat on as well and smiling down towards Cinder.

"This'll definitely get us to Solitas. But it won't get us into Atlas." Cinder shook her head as Neo rolled her eyes.

Putting her hand to the side of the ship, Neo projected an entire illusion onto it, making it appear as an Atlas Aircraft.

A smirk came upon Cinder's face as the illusion vanished while Neo panted slightly. "Excellent. I hope you can hold that up for longer though."

Neo merely pouted at that notion and stepped into the ship. "I'm sure you can." Cinder chuckled. "What, you lose your sense of humor with Roman?"

She didn't even bother looking in Cinder's direction till they stepped onto the airship. "You know, Neo... Someone once asked me if I believed in Destiny. I'm still very proud to say that I do." she smirked as the doors to the ship closed and both women inside smirked.

* * *

Blake and Yang's moment of silence was disrupted when the airship descended down where they were. "Guys!" Ruby called out as she saw the pair of them were clearly worse for wear. "What happened?!"

Glancing over to where Adam had last wandered off to, Blake took a deep breath. "A lot."

The pair entered the ship as Maria started to pilot them towards the shore again. "Sorry you guys had to go through that." Weiss frowned, looking away from them. "My family had a role in making him a monster..."

Blake shook her head. "No, he made his choices. We gave him every chance to leave but his mind was set." she looked to the bloodied pieces of Gambol Shroud that were beside her now. "I just... I wish it didn't come to that."

Ren put a hand on her shoulder. "He would have kept coming at you if you didn't end it."

"I know you're right. I just wish that weren't the case. I wanted to believe he had good in him still. But it's clear that his own actions clouded him far beyond the point of return." Blake took a deep breath. "I'll just have to stand by the choice Yang and I made."

"If you want to talk about it, we're all here for you." Weiss assured her.

Ruby was busy working on fixing up Yang's arm as best as she could. "There, I think it should at least have basic functionality back."

Waving her hand around again, Yang smiled to her sister. "Yeah, good as new." she tried to make the gun attachment protrude out of it, but it wasn't working. "Well, mostly." she shook her head before looking towards the shoreline where the Leviathan was approaching. "What are we gonna do about that?"

Maria shook her head. "Nothing. There isn't a thing we can do to stop it. It might be best that we just use this cover to leave and get to Atlas. Our mission is far more important" she insisted before Ruby stood up.

"No." she shook her head. "We're not going to leave an entire city to it's doom just because we have a mission to do. It's like what you said, Maria. A hunter must stand their ground."

"My sister lives there." Jaune argued in support of Ruby. "I'm not dooming my family and countless innocents because of our mission."

"If we do this, we're doing this our way." Nora smiled confidently.

"But what can we do though? That thing's massive." Qrow shook his head.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm still pretty spent." Yang shook her head.

"We're all worn out." Ren affirmed with her. "We've all fought some enemies that have worn us down."

"There's still one thing we can try." Ruby stood up as Maria realized what she meant.

"Are you absolutely certain?" she asked. "You realized that you're only going to have one shot at that."

"I'm aware." Ruby shook her head. "But what other options do we have?! I can use the relic to get it's attention and Weiss could use one of her summons to fly me right up to the thing."

"Ruby, if anything goes wrong-" Jaune was about to argue.

"I'll be fine." she assured confidently. "After all I'll have you guys, won't I?"

The radio in the ship suddenly went off with Caroline Cordovin's voice. "I implore you to help evacuate the citizens from Argus immediately!" she instructed. "Aid in the evacuation and be ready to engage!"

Ruby walked up and took hold of the Radio. "Miss Cordovin, this is Ruby Rose, I'm a young Huntress in training and I have a plan that might help everyone out."

"You again, Child?" Cordovin sounded annoyed.

"Please, just hear me out! I want to save everyone too! After all, we're responsible for this mess. Please, let us take responsibility by helping us. We need to get close to that thing!" Ruby explained as in the distance she watched as the Leviathan fired out a blast of Lightning, destroying the first outer wall before approaching closer. "But in order to that-"

"You need my ships to ensure you get close enough." Cordovin let out a sigh. "I will have two ships aid your's in nearing the enemy, but I should ask you, what do you intend to do in order to destroy that beast?"

Looking to her left and right, Ruby took a deep breath. "I can't quite explain it to you, as that's on a need to know basis, but what I can tell you, Miss Cordovin is that I only have one chance to use what I'm going to use."

"If it'll save Argus... Do it." Cordovin then spoke into the general radio line. "I need two ships on the one that's approaching the Leviathan now, draw away the smaller Grimm and make sure that whatever it is they do in order to stop the beast, that it gets done!" she commanded as a pair of airships flew alongside them.

Their escorts immediately engaged with the Griffons, Nevermore and Manticores that were circling around the ship. Explosions, bullets and crashing were all that could be heard as the back door to the ship opened and Weiss was starting to prepare her glyph when a Griffon landed into the ship's cargo hold. Qrow immediately kicked it in the face and blasted off a wing before turning towards Weiss. "Can ya hurry it up?!" he asked as the Leviathan let out a roar after getting blasted in the face with a rocket.

"I'm moving as fast as I can with this!" Weiss argued as a smaller Queen lancer summon emerged from the glyph. "Hop on Ruby, I'll resize it once you're outside." she assured.

Ruby, clipping the relic to her belt stepped onto the Queen Lancer Summon and smiled to Qrow before she was then flown out of the ship and right towards the Leviathan.

A flock of Nevermore amid the chaos attempted to fly into Ruby, but she shot at them and cleaved through the last one that came her way while the Queen Lancer dove down closer to the Leviathan as it now bumped right into the second gate before stopping and staring at Ruby.

The others in the ship were doing all they could to keep Grimm off of Ruby. With Nora firing out grenades, Ren shooting anything that flew past him, Yang firing out of her one gauntlet, Blake helping Yang provide suppressing fire and Qrow shooting through any Grimm that flew at Ruby from atop the ship.

"Okay, Okay... Focus, Ruby focus..." she closed her eyes and tried to focus on the memories of the people she loved as the Grimm took a breath that she felt nearly blow her off of the Queen lancer.

"Come on!" she yelled as the Leviathan inhaled now, charging up a blast of electricity.

"RUBY!" Yang held her hand out to her sister.

Suddenly every memory that she could think of flashed through her mind, from Zwei arriving at Beacon, to an interaction she had with Penny during the Festival, her team at the Festival, Pyrrha offering her a hand during a sparring match and Team JNPR sharing a laugh with her during lunch. But then suddenly Ruby's mind flashed with the bad memories of all that happened during the fall of Beacon, Penny's death, Yang losing her arm, Pyrrha's death and Yang falling into a deep depression.

The Grimm charged it's breath up and readied itself. "JINN!" Ruby called out as she staggered back and the lamp glowed with power and time came to a halt around her.

Looking at Ruby, Jinn was surprised to see the situation. "What is your question?" she asked her.

"I..." Ruby looked down. "I don't have a question. I just needed time." she confessed. "I'm sorry I used you like this."

The mystical being just chuckled at this. "No, it's alright. It was quite the clever idea... I'll give you this once. But the next time you summon me, you must ask me a question."

Smiling slightly, Ruby nodded. "Thank you."

With that Ruby closed her eyes again and all the bad memories filtered through her mind, but then they were slowly being replaced with other memories, memories of her bonds with others, from the food fight to the Vytal Festival, her teammates had always been there. Team JNPR had always been there for her, even when all hope was lost after Beacon. Then there was her sister Yang, always so motherly to her, always caring and never once backing down from keeping her baby sister safe.

Finally one last image flashed into her mind, a woman wearing a white cloak standing at the edge of a cliff, looking out towards a seemingly endless forest. As she turned around, it was clear that she looked very similar to Ruby.

_There's a light that shines,  
And it's power is mine!_

Eyes glowing with a brief glint of silver light, Ruby closed them and then opened them again as time began to flow again. The Leviathan was blasted with the Light of the Silver eyes along with most of the Grimm in the immediate radius. Everything, that was hit turned to stone. All that flew fell to the ocean, while the Leviathan stood still as a statue.

_Though our body's weak and breakable,  
The Spirit is Indomitable!_

"She did it." Maria smiled proudly to Ruby as everyone in Argus that was watching, Saphron, Terra and Adrian included cheered upon seeing the Leviathan get petrified.

Suddenly the loud stomping of the Colossus approached. "I'll take it from here!" Caroline Cordovin declared as her Colossus' remaining hand turned into a drill and it dove right at the Leviathan, killing it instantly, just as its head tried to escape from its stone prison.

"Thank you, Miss Rose." Caroline Cordovin smiled to Ruby as she opened her cockpit window up. "You reminded me why I have this job. It's not for gratification, nor is it for Atlas's reputation. It's for the protection and safety of the people. It's so everyone can live their fullest lives in peace, it's so-" suddenly Ruby fired a sniper shot at an approaching Nevermore that had almost caught Cordovin during her long winded speech. "Thank you for that." the woman shook her head. "Now then, go."

"Y-You're certain?!" Ruby asked.

"We won't report on a single stolen ship during an incident like this." Cordovin assured. "If your mission is as important as you say it is, give General Ironwood my regards and recommendations for your own services!" she then closed her cockpit up again and sprinted forward at the Grimm.

Ruby looked back towards the ship. "Alright guys, let's get going!"

* * *

The Flight to Atlas was mostly smooth with everyone getting some much needed rest. Ruby looked around, seeing Blake asleep and leaning on her sister, who winked to her playfully. Qrow sat up front, just watching and helping Maria pilot. Ren and Nora were asleep and leaning on each other, while Jaune was looking out of a window at the passing clouds.

"I'm glad we were able to make it this far." Ruby smiled as she walked up to the front cabin.

"Well, glad you're up now, you likely wouldn't wanna miss what we're about to see." Maria nodded as the ship flew past some clouds and as soon as they were through they saw it, the floating city in the sky that was none other than Atlas.

"Whoa." Jaune turned his attention up to the front.

"You know, as much as I hate it there, that sight is one that's kinda hard to get over." Weiss shook her head as everyone else in the back was starting to get up to have a good look at what they were approaching.

"is it me or does something seem off about them." Yang remarked.

"The entire fleet is up there." Nora remarked.

"They're gathered in formation." Ren commented.

"Are they preparing for war or something?" Blake asked.

"I... Don't know." Qrow shook his head. "Something's not right."

Suddenly the ship received a radio in from an operator in Atlas. "Welcome home, Manta 5-1..."

* * *

Staring out of the broken windows in shock, Emerald and Mercury were watching something that was happening right outside of Salem's castle. "W-What's she doing?" Mercury asked.

"I don't know." Emerald shook her head.

Hazel walked over and watched as well. "There's that old saying. If you want something done right..."

A Beringel emerged from the puddle of black liquid, only for Salem to use her magic to alter it's body and grant it wings as it then flew up and landed next to several other winged Beringel.

"Do it yourself." Hazel finished as Salem started to conjure more magic with the black liquid.

* * *

**Commentary**: With this we conclude Volume 6 and well, all I have for now in terms of content. I may work on something with my OC team who if you'll recall back to Volume 4, said they were going to Atlas. Volume 7 I don't intend to start working on till Volume 7 itself is done and I've had time to process it, not to mention till it releases on Youtube in like several months.


End file.
